


Hit and Run

by dannyvhs (PepsiRabbit)



Category: Game Grumps, oneyplays
Genre: Blood, M/M, Torture, harsh swearing, one sided oneyraptor, oneycrime au, teeth pulling
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-13
Updated: 2018-09-16
Packaged: 2019-05-06 09:06:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 24,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14638604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PepsiRabbit/pseuds/dannyvhs
Summary: Chris and friends work under Motifa as a crime gang, and life is pretty good. That is until she asks them to go after a specific target. Chris begins to question whether or not this is something he really wants to do anymore, and if he even can. Tags update as fic goes. **Temporary Hiatus due to College**





	1. How We Met Her

**Author's Note:**

> First Oneyplays fanfiction, and the first official fic for my "Oneycrime AU" I have over on tumblr. Check out my artwork for it on my tumblr pepsi-rabbit to see their designs for this fic and other art I do.

To say she was a crime boss was a crime in of itself. She was a god among men and only three truly knew this fact. She was their goddess and they were her archangels. Motifa had found each of them individually, bringing them together in some kind of bond that felt like a family. Chris was the first. He had seen her power first hand when running from police, and after trying to make sense of what he had seen, the Irish man quickly made up his mind. It took no convincing for him to follow her and do her work. Motifa did not need help, but she welcomed his presence. Chris ended up being a close friend and almost family to her. He was eager to please and help her, and in return, Motifa felt she had a friend, someone to comfort her in her time of ultimate being, someone who caused her to laugh with the small things that he did. 

Julian was the next. After a case of miscommunication, he had found himself in trouble with a local gang. They had cornered him in a back alley, ready to finish what was started. No matter what he said, he couldn’t convince them to spare him and soon enough, fighting broke out with Julian fighting for his life. When she found him, Julian was already on the edge, about to collapse. He was wounded and bleeding, but Motifa had seen Julian’s strength as he fought, and his strength to continue on. She sent them away with only a look after brutally killing one gang member. Motifa took Julian in, tending to his wounds and in return, he too came to follow her. Chris and julian grew close quick, and the duo had become a feared threat in the city along with their leader, but it wasn't until their third member arrived that things really began. 

Ding Dong was an alien, simple as that. He crashed in Julian’s backyard one night creating quite a fuss for them. An alien crashing to Earth brought the government, but like the others, Ding Dong found safety in Motifa. They couldn't touch her. It was like she was a powerful force of nature, a law. His own kind was praised for their speed, strength, and intelligence, and while Ding Dong had to admit he wasn’t the strongest as he was still young, his skills could only come close to matching Motifa’s natural ability. She reminded him of his own people, of trained elders who had seen wars only young ones could dream of in stories told to them by their mothers, but she was no elder. She was young. She could only grow more powerful from here, and that thought terrified the alien. She was not of this planet. She was not of any planet.

Motifa loved them like her own children. They were not kids, in fact they were adults, but to her, they were children. She was beyond their mortal understanding and their small brains humored her, but also humbled her. They were the reason she was still here protecting this city. She had more important matters on her plate beyond here, but those were things that the boys would never know. For now, they lived in peace together with Motifa, doing her work and living under her protection. These were things Chris held as a standard in his life. Motifa was above them, and he wasn’t going to argue that. 

Chris shifted again for what seemed to be the millionth time. He squinted, looking through the telescopic sight on the sniper once more. He could see the target down below, he just had to wait for the right moment. He was laying on his stomach on the roof of a building, his gun set up on the edge. He usually wasn’t one to work with guns, but he liked to think he was the best when it came to long range sniping. He didn’t need to worry about up close combat with guns like Ding Dong did. He could relax and put everything into one shot with him unseen. He didn’t have to worry about the retaliation that would come with it. That would be put on the shoulders of someone else. Chris watched his target slink into a back alley, meeting up with a drug dealer. Chris bit his tongue, lining up the shot. 

“Boom.” He said, pulling the trigger. The bullet hit his target right in the forehead causing them to collapse. The dealer did not freak out, as he was a plant sent by Motifa to smoke out the target. Chris smiled some, moving back from the scope as his walkie came to life in his ear piece.

“Chris, you got ‘em?” Ding Dong asked.  
“Yeah, piece of cake.” Chris sat up, beginning to clean up his station. “I’ll be back in a few.”  
He took the scope off the gun as he heard what sounded like chewing coming from the walkie and Ding Dong confirmed what Chris had said.  
“Dee, are you eating? Fuck, did you guys go to McDonalds without me?” Chris asked angrily.  
“You were taking too long and Julian and I were hungry!” Ding Dong protested. Chris stuffed the gun back in its case and shut it with a huff. “Yeah well, some of us actually like getting shit done.”  
“Excuse me, asswipe. Who told you to go do that after you put it off for three weeks?”  
“Ding-”  
“AND who covered for your ass when you screwed up and let Stevens get away because you farted really loud?”

Chris reached into his pocket and shut off his walkie talkie. Fuck this. He picked up the gun case and stood up stretching. He adjusted his green hoodie which had been pushed up when he was laying down. His hoodie and jeans had become a staple. It was common and pedestrian, which didn’t call much attention to himself, not to mention it was comfortable.The one thing that stood out in his uniform however, was a red bandana tied to his upper right arm. He liked the idea of them being united by something physical, so he had suggested the bandanas. The others allowed it, not wanting to hear Chris go on and on about it until they caved like he normally did. 

It was a sign of their friendship, of what they were. At least, that’s how Chris saw it. He kept his on his arm, Julian’s around his head, and Ding Dong’s was around his neck. A red band of friendship and crime. How poetically stupid. 

The Irish boy headed to the door on the roof. His job for today was done, and he was looking forward to video games with Ding Dong and Julian. He was also looking forward to giving the two of them hell for eating without him. If they knew what was good for them, they’d save him a burger.


	2. Meeting a Grump

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chris ends up meeting a Grump while out on the town

The drive downtown was like any other they’d had before. Ding Dong took them on his motorcycle, which was fitted with a sidecar. Chris always took the sidecar while Julian would ride the back of the bike while Ding Dong drove. It got to the point where they never argued these positions, it just was their natural state. The only difference today, was that as the wind blew his hair back and the engine roared next to him while Ding Dong sped around cars and flew past them way above the speed limit, instead of showing any kind of concern or even joy at the law breaking he was doing, Chris felt distracted. Lately things just seemed a bit off about his everyday life, like something was wrong or something was missing. 

Chris had no problems with killing people. He’d done it plenty of times before. He even liked his position in their group. He was the silent sniper from above, the explosives guy, the knife fighter. All these things were fun to him, and he was very good at what he did, but was this really what he wanted? He used to be an innocent boy with hopes and dreams. He tried his hardest to not think about his past. Chris always reminded himself that the past was in the past and he had to focus on himself now. Whether he liked it or not, this was his life now.

Ding Dong parked along the sidewalk and turned off the motor. Chris hopped out of the sidecar, adjusting his hoodie as the others joined him on the sidewalk.

“Remember why we’re here,” Ding Dong said.

“Remind me again, I don’t know.” Chris said, which earned a sigh from his alien friend.

“Julian and I are going to do a weapons pick up while you keep look out,” He explained. “We’re on our own for right now until Motifa has a plan, so we’re going to do a heist soon. We’re running out of money.”

Julian hooked his arm with Ding Dong’s and smiled. “And we need guns to steal money! Good plan, huh, Chris?”

“Yeah I guess so.” Chris stuck his hands in his hoodie pocket with a shrug. “Gets the job done. I just don’t get why I always end up as look out.”

“Because I made the plan,” Ding Dong said. “And Julian comes with me.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you homos.” Chris rolled his eyes. “Just go get the guns.”

The duo headed inside the shop while Chris leaned against the brick wall with a sigh. He hated look out. Nothing ever happened. This was just buying weapons, which wasn’t illegal. Drug deals were illegal. Killing people was illegal. This was just a boring shop stop and boy did he hate the look out position. He wanted to go in and pick out guns, but he wasn’t the gun person. Ding Dong was. Julian was the heavy hitter so he worked with large guns and melee weapons. 

“Fuckers are probably making out,” Chris grumbled under his breath.  “stupid gay julian and gay ding dong, making me sit out here and keep watch more like keep watch while we have a three way with the shopkeep.”

“Well someone isn't happy,” someone said shutting Chris up. The Irish man looked up from the ground to see a man with long brown hair with a blond streak. 

“Arin?” He asked in disbelief. “What are you doing here? If ding dong sees you, he'll shoot you! You know this Motifa’s territory,” 

Arin waved it off. “Ain't worried about him. This might be Motifa’s side of town, but this is where Sushi Panda is, so I'll take my chances. Besides,  it's nice seeing an old grump member.”

Chris actually felt his face heat up. He hadn’t been part of Arin’s group for years. He quickly moved forward and threw a hand over Arin’s mouth, shushing him. 

“Arin, no one knows I was a grump, okay? I know I wasn’t like, really official or anything, but you cannot let the guys know. Ever since we all joined up with Motifa, she’s been telling us how bad you guys are and while Julian could definitely be a pushover, Ding Dong doesn’t know any better. He’ll shoot you on sight, especially since you’re the leader!” 

Arin moved Chris’s hand away. “Aren’t you their leader? They’d listen to you.”

Chris shook his head. “It’s different with us, okay? I just don’t want you getting hurt.”

“Well, thank you for the concern, but again, I’m not afraid. I’ve got a good group of guys behind me, and no offense to your boys, but we could easily take them out. “ Arin replied with a smug look on his face. “We have Ross and Brian.”

“Arin, we have Motifa.”

“Your point?”

Chris sighed. Clearly Arin had never seen Motifa at work. “Arin, she’s not human. At least, I don’t think so. She could slice you in half with one karate chop, or use her laser eyes to blow you up!” This caused Arin to start laughing, as if Chris was making this all up. If he knew better, he would have taken Chris seriously, but if he didn’t believe him, there was no way he would unless he saw Motifa in action. 

“Fine, whatever. Don’t believe me,” Chris said with a roll of his eyes. “Just, trust me when I said you can’t be seen on this side of town without either clearing it with Motifa first or having a damn good excuse.”

“Look, if it makes you feel better, I’ll only keep a small pistol on me when I come over. Deal?” Arin asked.

Chris was going to have to settle. He crossed his arms again and leaned against the wall. “Deal, I guess. You’re just lucky I’m the sharp shooter or your head would be gone by now, you know.”

“Yeah, I know how you are, Oney.” 

“My name is Chris.”

“You’re still Oney to me, Chris.” Arin said with a teasing wink. He ruffled the Irish man’s hair, much to Chris’s displeasure. “Small little Oney, wanting to be a big bad gangster. Amazing how time flies, huh?”

Chris pushed him off. “Alright you old man, get a move on before I let Dee know you’re here.”

Arin waved a goodbye and headed off, leaving Chris alone again. Chris fixed his hair with a small grumble. Why did Arin always have test the waters? Sure, Arin was a very skilled man and feared man, but if he was caught he could easily start a gang war. Motifa and the Grumps had come to a peace treaty by dividing the city into territories and keeping to their boundaries. Of course there were exceptions to crossing the lines, but Arin was just pushing it. 

As if on cue, the door to the gun shop opened and out came Ding Dong and Julian, arm and arm and giggling like a pair of love birds over whatever they had been talking about. They had the weapon cases in their hands along with some bags. Chris followed them once they passed him. Once everything was loaded into the side car of the motorcycle, they prepared for home. 

“Anything fun happen?” Julian asked, wrapping his arms around Ding Dong’s middle as the alien started up the bike. Chris shrugged.

“Nothing happened,” He lied. So much had happened in one little meeting, and now he couldn’t stop thinking about it.


	3. Assignment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys run from police, and Chris gets an assignment

Gunshots echoed in the night as police sirens followed. The city was alive with activity, as it would be on any Friday night. However, on this night, a black car was swerving through traffic at high speeds with police hurrying after. Julian drove the car trying his hardest to keep them from crashing, while Ding Dong stood up on the seats peeking out the sunroof, shooting at the cops. Chris rode shotgun laughing the entire time. He felt so alive! They had robbed a bank and gotten away with serious cash. It would be enough to payback those debts to other dealers and gangs, along with a cut for each of them and Motifa. 

“Chris!” Julian shouted. “I need them off our tail!”

“On it!” Chris rolled down the window and reached into his backpack on his lap. He took out a grenade, pulled the pin, and threw it out the window. It was only a few minutes before there was an explosion behind them, putting two cop cars out and halting a good number of them. Ding Dong continued shooting from up above. When Julian jerked the car, he nearly fell over.

“Careful, Jules!” Ding Dong shouted.

“You try driving a heist car!” he shouted back.

Chris stuck his head out the window laughing. He loved doing heists. Most times he didn’t have to kill anyone, just blow things up enough that they got away. Ding Dong suddenly ducked back into the car. “They’re on us still!” 

“What the fuck?” Chris asked. 

“Chris, tag in-!” Ding Dong held out his hand, and Chris took it, swapping places with him. Ding Dong flopped in the seat, immediately changing out the ammo in all his guns while Chris took his place. He peeked out the sunroof as bullets flew past him, just barely missing him. He judged the distance of the cop car in front of him and smirked. 

“Time for Plan Boomcar-”

“Don’t be a fucking idiot!” Julian shouted, hearing him. “You are not doing Boomcar! You’ll get yourself killed!”

“Then how’s UPS Delivery?”

“Fine, I’ll get you closer!”

Julian actually slowed some, allowing a cop car to come up beside them. They were shouting over the intercom for them to pull over and Ding Dong was shouting at Chris that they were prepared to shoot. Chris slid open the slide door, seeing the officer had his window down to shoot.

“UPS DELIVERY!” Chris shouted about the cars and wind. He threw two grenades through the window. “PUNCH IT, JULES!” 

Julian stepped on the gas as hard as he could, sending them flying forward. It sent Chris flying back against the back seat of the car. Despite all this, he couldn’t help but laugh hysterically as the car was rocked by the explosion of the cop car. The trio swerved off into a side road. 

“Home free!” Ding Dong declared. “They got a huge pile up back there thanks to Chris.”

“You’re welcome~” Chris said with a little waving hand motion.

“We’re not home free until we get this money back to Motifa,” Julian pointed out. 

“Who cares?” Chris dared to asked. “It’s our money, we stole it.”

“You know what she’d do to us,” Julian said, a bit fearful. 

“Yeah well, maybe I’m tired of answering to someone!” Chris declared sitting up.

“We don’t have much of a choice,” Ding Dong said, snapping the clip for his pistol in place with the palm of his hand. He was sitting sideways, so his feet were propped up over the armrest of the seat. He reached one foot forward and poked Julian, who swatted him away. Ding Dong chuckled and did it again.

“Ding, this isn’t the time to be poking me with your cute little alien feet.” Julian said, trying to sound irritated, but it was clear he wasn’t upset. 

“God you two are disgusting.” Chris groaned from the back.

“Oh shut up, fart face.” Ding Dong said back.

“Cock sucker.”

“Ass licker.”

“Cum biter.”

“That doesn’t even make sense, Chris.”

“Yeah well, fuck you too.”

They went back to silence with the occasional comment about the incident, but they didn’t dwell too much on it. After driving around to make sure they weren’t being trailed, they headed to the outer parts of the city where Motifa’s headquarters were. She had set up shop in a dingy little suburban home. It didn’t look like much, which was exactly the point. You’d have no idea such a powerful being was inside, scheming and planning on how to perform her work on this unforgiving city. 

Julian pulled into the driveway and shut off the motor. The trio got out and each took a share of the stolen money and headed inside. 

“Motifa?” Chris called, going in first. When it came to dealing with Motifa, he was elected leader. He was the first one to be brought into her care after all, and she definitely had a soft spot for Chris. 

“Chris? Is that you?” Motifa called from somewhere in the house.

“Yeah, and Ding Dong and Julian.” Chris called back. Motifa appeared from the kitchen with a sassy smile. She looked normal enough. Motifa just seemed to be a normal, sassy woman who lived in the city, but she was so much more.

“Mama was just working on dinner for you boys. How’d that heist go?”

They held up the money bags. “Got it!” Chris declared. 

“Aw, ain’t you boys just the best? You just sit that down in the living room and come eat. Y’all deserve a break for your work.” She disappeared back into the kitchen.

They deposited their bags and headed in after her. Chris took his usual position of sitting on the counter while she finished frying the chicken strips in the pan. He kicked his feet, trying to find something to fill the silence. He knew the others had a fear of her, but he just couldn’t find any fear. He knew there were plenty of reasons to be afraid of Motifa, but he just couldn’t be afraid. It was like Motifa was family. She honestly was. She was the first thing close to family since he left the Grumps. 

“Chris, I got a job for you.” Motifa said, reaching into her pocket and handing him a folded up paper.

“Sniper job?” He asked.

“Mhm, and only you can do it. Gonna put my best man on it cause Motifa ain’t looking for mistakes. She wants results.”

Chris unfolded the paper and nearly felt his heart stop.

_ Target: Arin Hanson _

_ Occupation: Leader of Grump gang _

His hands crushed the paper up and he felt a lump in his throat. There was no way he could do this. He just couldn’t! 

“Motifa, I-”

“Getting paid big for this, Chris. Motifa been meaning to take out those Grump boys, and now she’s getting paid too. Seems like a great deal.”

“Motifa,”

She looked over at him, and he felt his blood go cold.

“I uh, I won’t let you down.”

He was such a fucking liar.


	4. Sneaking Off

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chris sneaks off after talking to Julian.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Longer chapter this time! There just was a lot to put in and I didn't want to break it up into two chapters. There's a lot I've got planned, so hopefully it doesn't seem too fast, but I gotta start getting us into the conflict. Thank you also for the kudos and love!

 

Chris couldn’t stop thinking about Arin and the Grump gang. He now had a job to kill Arin, but there was no way he could possibly do it. They had once been his family, his best friends. Besides, even if he didn’t care about Arin as a friend, if he did this, it would unleash ultimate hell upon the city. Two powerful gangs would be at war using the city as their battlegrounds and there would be so many people that would die because of him. It could easily be Ding Dong or Julian. Thoughts of them dead would flash in his brain, before disappearing as he shook his head in fear. He couldn’t stand this much more of this mental torture. Chris didn’t know which option was worse, taking out Arin, or disobeying Motifa. He could be killed either way and either way he could lose everything. Why on earth did this have to happen?

These thoughts plagued him for the next few days, and Chris’s friends began to take notice of his change in behavior. He ate and slept less, always distracted, and off in his own world, but they chalked it up to Chris being Chris at first. He had always been a little off compared to them. It didn’t make him any less a person or their friend, but they knew it was part of who he was.

However, Julian decided to draw the line and step in when he noticed that Chris hadn’t eaten at all that day and kept moping by the window in his room. This was very unlike Chris. Something must have been bothering him. Julian knocked on Chris’s open door. He held a plate of ham and mashed potatoes, leftovers from their dinner that night that Chris had excused himself from.

“Chris? Can I come in?”

“Oh, hey, Jules. Sure.”  
Julian came in and sat the plate on Chris’s nightstand, which was really just a storage crate on it’s side. “I brought you dinner. I know you didn’t eat much today.”

“Thanks.”

“Chris, is something the matter? You know you can talk to me.”

“I just, I met an old friend the other day,” Chris said. “And I’m worried about them.”

It was half a lie, but it would have to do. There was no way Chris could tell him the full truth. Julian took a seat on Chris’s bed, watching him.  Julian rolled Chris’s words around in his brain trying to figure out the best course of action to follow this with.

“Are you worried about us doing something to them?” He asked gently.

Chris just nodded, not looking at him. He was more worried about himself doing the hurting honestly.

“Well, we are a gang, Chris, but if they’re your friend, then surely they wouldn’t be bad. You’re our leader besides Motifa. You make the shots, you know. We wouldn’t harm anyone you care about. That’d be like if you threatened to harm Ding Dong. I wouldn’t let you.”

“I know, Jules. You’d rip off my limbs before I touched him.”

“Damn right I would.”

Chris chuckled looking over at Julian. He could see the protectiveness in his eyes. Julian would do anything to keep Ding Dong safe, even if it meant taking Chris down. Hell, Chris was sure Julian would fight Motifa hand to hand if he had to.

“Julian, how’d you know you liked Ding Dong?” He asked suddenly.

“Well, I noticed that whenever I was around him, my heart fluttered, and when he wasn’t around, I just kept thinking about him all the time.” Julian explained, blushing a little. “It drove me crazy, honestly. I couldn’t sleep some nights because I thought about him.” He rubbed the back of his neck a little awkwardly. “I never really thought about me loving him until that time we almost lost him,”

“In the car explosion,” Chis said with a nod.

“Yeah. I was so terrified, more so than I ever had been before in my life I think. Like, in that moment, I wished I was the one who was in his place, not him. Thankfully he pulled through due to his alien biology and fast healing.” Julian said. “Did you actually wanna know, or are you trying to change topic?”

“Little of both,” Chris agreed with a smug smile.

Julian leaned over and playfully punched his shoulder. “You dork.” Julian stood up, and headed for the door, seeing as he had gotten something out of Chris. It was better than nothing. He stopped, then turned to face him.

“Chris, just promise me one thing.”

“Yeah?”

“Please don’t do anything stupid.”

“I won’t.”

He would.

 

* * *

 

Chris waited until night had fallen before he slipped out his window and into the backyard. Motifa’s house was two story, yes, but their bedrooms were on the first floor with most of her main operations going on upstairs. It made it easier to get out of the house when needed, whether under the secretive cover of night, or when they had to clear the area quickly in order to keep suspicion off Motifa. Not like she really needed to worry about that anyways. She was Motifa after all.

Chris hopped onto his bike and headed off down the road. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a motorbike like Ding Dong since he didn’t have a license, so a regular pedal bike would just have to do for now. It took him about twenty minutes to get across town at his speed, and using the back roads and alley ways.. He headed into another neighborhood near the edge of the city. Instead of a house like their place, he skidded to a halt in front of what looked like a normal office building. It wasn’t large like the skyscrapers, but it wasn’t too small. It was about medium sized. The building was old looking and had definitely seen better days, but it was clear that it was still cared for and tended to.

There was a chain link fence around the building with barbed wire at the top, but this wasn’t going to stop him. After Chris ditched his bike in a bush on the outer edge of the chain link fence, he began to climb it. Before climbing, he had pulled the sleeves of his hoodie up over his hands. He knew it could still cut him, but if he was fast enough, he could get over it without too much damage.

Chris reached the top and grabbed a hold. Sure enough, it began to dig right through his sleeve, but at least it was something. He began hauling himself over, trying to ignore the sharp burning pain as it cut into his palms. Blood welled up around the barbs as they pierced the skin of his palms. As Chris threw his first leg over, he felt some of the blood begin to run down his hand and arm, into his hoodie sleeve.

“Fuck,” he hissed under his breath. Chris adjusted himself again in order to throw the other leg over, causing the barbs to work deeper into the skin. It burned and hurt like a bitch. Once he threw his second leg over, he only had a moment to cling to the fence before the pain was too much and he let go, letting himself drop.

Chris landed on the ground of the other side rather ungracefully. The Irish man rolled over with a groan, propping himself up on an elbow. He looked down at his palms to find his hands a bloody mess, but they weren’t as bad as he thought they were going to be. He hadn’t left any skin chunks behind. It only seemed to slice him open and bleed. He’d take that as a victory. Chris looked around, making sure that no one had spotted him. He didn’t see anyone patrolling the grounds, and no one seemed to have heard him jump the fence. He was in the clear.

Chris got to his feet, keeping his hands cupped close to his body so the blood wouldn’t keep running down his arms. Now all he had to do was find a window to slip in, perhaps, and as long as he got in undetected-

A flashlight was suddenly blinding him. “Who’s there?” A stern voice growled.

Chris tried to  block the light from his eyes, but it was no use.

“Chris?” The voice asked. “What the hell are you doing here?”

When the flashlight lowered, Chris could see Brian looking back at him.

“I could ask you the same thing,” he said with a chuckle.

“You’re bleeding, Chris.”

“I wouldn’t be if you removed the barbed wire.”

Brian shook his head disapprovingly and came over, taking a hold of Chris’s upper arm. He grumbled something about being lucky he was “just a kid” and he began to lead him, or more like dragged him, towards the front doors of the building. Okay, so his stealth plan failed, but at least he was getting in and at least he wouldn’t risk being shot at.

Once inside, the fluorescent lights nearly blinded him. His eyes had adjusted to the darkness outside and it took him a moment of rapid blinking to adjust. Brian continued to haul him through the offices and down the hall until he arrived at one room. He pulled Chris in and sitting at a desk in front of him was Arin. He was not dressed in his usual outfit, but instead wore jeans and and old tee shirt, much like he had been wearing when Chris had seen him before.

“Found this out on the lawn,” Brian said.

Chris chuckled nervously and waved a bloody hand. “Hey, Arin.”

“Can I kill him now?” Brian asked.

“Christ, Brian. You can’t kill him.” Arin said.

“I was joking, jeez.” Brian let go of Chris . “You’re welcome, by the way. I almost ended up shooting him. Thought you might not like to see him dead.”

“Thank you,” Arin said. With this, Brian took his leave. Chris rubbed his upper arm where Brian had held on. God he had a strong grip. His eyes turned from Brian walking away to Arin who was nearly glaring at him, but Chris could tell that Arin wasn’t angry, but more concerned. He had been with him long enough to pick up on when he truly was mad.

“Wanna explain what you’re doing at the Grump space at one in the morning?” Arin asked, pulling Chris’s attention back to him.

“I had to come warn you,” Chris confessed, jumping right into the meat of the matter. “Motifa gave me an assignment to kill you. Arin, there’s no way I possibly could-”

Arin held up a hand. He pulled a chair over next to his and patted it. Chris took the invitation and sat down.

“Give me your hands, O’Neill.”

Chris obeyed. Arin opened his desk and took out a first aid kit.

“Arin, I can’t do it.” Chris said. “And if I can’t, I know one of the others will, or Motifa will. Someone will be coming after you and you need to know.”

“You know you’re betraying your gang, right?” Arin asked.

“I know, but-” Chris cut himself off, chewing on his tongue. Why was he doing this anyways? It was clear that’s what Arin was asking him. Why help his enemy? Was it because he used to be one of them? Did he feel like he owed Arin for taking him in all those years ago? He honestly couldn’t answer any of those questions.

“But what you’re doing is incredibly dangerous.” Arin took out a wipe and soaked it with some kind of medical cleaner. “This is going to burn,” He ran the wipe over Chris’s hands, causing him to hiss in pain, but Arin forced him to keep his hands in place and not move them.

“Arin, I had to-”

“You could have been killed tonight, O’Neill.”

“Yeah but-”

“Christ, what if Ross was out there and not Brian? He would have taken your head off!”

“Okay, but, Arin-”

“Fucking hell, Oney.”

At this, Chris froze. Oney had always been his nickname as a grump, since each person had their own alias to go by. Once he had joined the new group, he never really had a need for it anymore. Anytime he had to use a name, he’d use it still and Ding Dong and Julian did know about it, but the only person who ever actually addressed him as such was always Arin. Arin had seen so much potential in him and was more than happy to indulge Chris when he got a little carried away with the whole gang situation.

Arin placed pads on each hand before he tightly wrapped the gauze around Chris’s palms and taped it off. “There. Now don’t go jumping anymore fences, got it?”

Chris nodded. “Look, I’m sorry for showing up uninvited,”

“Well, it was helpful you told me about the hit on me. Now I can do something about it.” Arin said, getting up from his chair. Chris watched him walk over to the door of the small office space and look out into the main hall.

“Do something?” He asked confused. “Wait, you’re not gonna kill them are you?”

“Oh, fuck no. I won’t hurt Julian or Ding Dong.” Arin promised.

Chris smiled at that. “Thanks, Arin.”

“I will, however, kill anyone else your boss sends after me. Hopefully we can get through this without too much trouble, but I have a feeling that’s not going to happen. Never has in the past.” Arin played with his mustache. Chris guessed he was probably thinking about other turf wars and gang wars he had seen in his past. Maybe he was thinking about how much of an idiot Chris was for coming here. He would really have no idea what he was thinking without Arin telling him.

“You need to head back,” Arin said turning to face him. “I don’t need Motifa on my doorstep thinking I kidnapped you.”

“But you didn’t. I would tell her I came-”

“And what would that do to you? You might get killed yourself.”

Chris looked down, fiddling with his ripped sleeves. He’d have to sew them back together.

“Chris,” Arin said. Chris looked up.

“It’s going to be okay, just don’t do anything stupid.”

“I won’t.”

He didn’t.


	5. Drunk Dancing

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chris and friends go to a night club. Chris gets wasted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was a lot of fun to write. Things are gonna start happening from here on with a little fluff here and there. Thank you again for the support! Please comment, leave a kudos, or share if you enjoy the series!

 

The bat thudded against the man’s skull repeatedly. It started as hard thuds, but as Julian continued, it turned more into a squishy thudding sound and truthfully it was making Chris sick. He moved away from the bloody scene, taking a seat on the doorstep to a back door of a building in the alley way. He sighed taking out his phone. It was 3 am and here they were out and about on the town beating the shit out of people. It had been a few days since his trip to the Grump space, and the boys hadn’t let up on their questions about what happened to his hands. Chris refused to tell them. It would be his mystery.

“Chris?” Julian asked, coming over. He had blood spattered on his face and shirt. His leather jacket was tied around his waist, and his red bandana still remained tied around his forehead. Chris looked up at him and Julian’s face softened with concern as he sat down with him.

“Hey, talk to me. You’re not like yourself lately.” Julian said. “Something got you down?”

“Jules, I don’t think I can do this anymore.” Chris admitted.

“Do what?”

“This gang life. I don’t know if I wanna kill people anymore, or steal money, or do any of this. Like, what’s the point of it?” Chris looked at him. It was clear Julian didn’t have a proper response to this since he averted his eyes, looking down at the ground.

“It was the job, wasn’t it?” Julian asked.

“What?” Chris felt himself freeze up.

“Motifa’s job. It has something to do with that, doesn’t it? I mean, she gives you a job, and you disappear only to return with ripped sleeves and cut up hands, and clearly someone bandaged you up,” Julian pointed out. “I don’t know who she has a hit out on, she didn’t tell us, but Chris, if it’s someone you care about, we won’t harm them. I made that promise to you already.”

Chris smiled some, but he knew Julian might change his mind once he knew exactly who the hit was on. He moved away from and stood up stretching. “We should head back,” Chris said.

“Yeah, I need to clean my bat,” Julian held up his bat which was now covered in dark red blood and bits of brain matter along with skull fragments.

“What about him?” Chris asked, pointing a thumb towards the person they had just brutally murdered. Julian shrugged.

“Leave that to Motifa’s clean up.” Julian said. Chris agreed and the two walked back out of the alley to the main street. Despite it being extremely late at night, the city was still alive with action. Cars sped by, shops had neon lights flashing open signs, women in slutty outfits smoked on street corners flagging cars, and Ding Dong waited on his motorcycle for the duo to return.

Ding Dong smiled seeing them return. Julian quickened his pace and pulled Ding Dong into a kiss as Chris caught up. He fake gagged and hopped into the sidecar on the motorcycle.

“God, you homos are disgusting.” Chris said. Julian got on the back and wrapped his arms around Ding Dong, who laughed.

“Chris, I think you’re just jealous you don’t have a boyfriend.” Ding Dong said.

“I’m not gay,” Chris said folding his arms.

“What are you then, Christopher?” Julian asked with a fake snooty accent.

“I’m bisexual, thank you very much, Julian.” Chris said.

“Okay, then you’re half gay.” Ding Dong said. He brought the motorcycle to life.

“Wait that’s not-”

“Shut up, ya half gay!” Ding Dong teased. Julian laughed his signature wheezing laugh as Ding Dong pulled out into the traffic and took off.

* * *

 

Ding Dong kicked down the kickstand as he rolled the motorcycle into its spot in front of the club. After finishing their job, they had all agreed on going out to a club for drinks. They all seemed a little stressed lately, and after Julian and Ding Dong had talked it over, they both agreed that Chris needed a night out to clear his head and get him back into the swing of things. Ding Dong, along with being an excellent shooter and cyclist, also had a hand in the pocket of almost every nightclub. Not even Julian really knew how he managed that, but there wasn’t one place that would turn them down upon trying to enter.

“Drinks are on me,” Ding Dong said as they entered. The place was alive with music. The bass thumped in Chris’s chest and he almost began to feel alive again. He could already see tons of people dancing, drinking, kissing. It was your typical night club, but here, they were like kings. Chris followed Ding Dong and Julian to the bar where Ding Dong ordered their drinks. Chris sat at one of the bar seats with them. He was passed an old fashioned whiskey while the other two had something a bit more fancy.

Chris wasn’t picky. Maybe it was his Irish heritage, or maybe it was the fact that half the time he didn’t go for drinks unless someone was paying, but he’d practically drink anything. He swirled the drink and ice in the cup looking down into it before he tilted his head back, drinking it. It was sharp and burned the back of his throat, but he welcomed the burn. It was a nice distraction. Chris ended up finishing the drink along with a few others. Drink after drink passed by and soon, he could feel his head swimming

Chris looked over to Julian and Ding Dong. The two were making out, their drinks forgotten on the bar. Chris felt bitter watching them. He couldn't understand the feeling inside of him at that present moment, but he wanted them to stop. He wanted to punch them or something. Maybe that would make the burning in his chest go away. Chris got up from the bar wobbling a little. He hated them. That’s what he was feeling. Why did they have to kiss all the time and be happy? Chris stumbled away through the groups of people. He didn’t know where in the club he was going, but no one was going to stop him. He suddenly slammed into someone’s back, causing them to stumble forward.

“Watchit,” Chris slurred. “You fucking..fucking _moron_!”

“Oh, hey, sorry. You alright?” The man he stumbled into asked. He sounded kind, gentle, like someone Chris knew long long ago. The Irish man however was too drunk off his ass to consider any of these things and he ended up shoving the man back, but the shove was pathetic.

“I’ll fuckin’ kill ya!” Chris said with a slight giggle.

“Wait a second, Chris?” The man asked with concern. “Chris, is that you?”

Chris still couldn’t register who this person was. He felt like he was going to throw up, but it kinda felt nice. It was hard to hear what the man was saying as some kind of dubstep was thumping in his ears. Chris smiled and felt himself beginning to dance to the music while voices talked around him, shouted around him. For a moment he didn’t give a shit about anything. He felt like the universe had just hit the pause button for a moment and let him enjoy his moment. Of course, the universe could only be paused for so long. Chris gagged a few times, spinning on his heels. The room was spinning in a million different directions and he was about to vomit.

Hands were on him, guiding him somewhere. He tried to push them away, but his hands only felt air. He was moving across the club with two people. At least, two people were holding onto him to keep him from falling over. Someone opened a door. Voices were talking in hushed tones. The dark lighting became bright as he entered a new room. Chris’s knees buckled under him and suddenly his face was falling forward to face the open toilet bowl.

He threw up like it was his fucking job, his life’s mission.  All that mattered in his present moment of existence was this toilet. It was grounding him in the spinning world around him. His hands clutched the side of the bowl as if letting go would send him flying into the sky and away from the Earth. Chris’s stomach continued to squirm inside him while everything came out into the bowl. It was hazy in his eyes. He only saw the toilet and a mixture of yellow bile and food. He groaned laying his head on the dirty rim. It was cool to the touch compared to the heat was that was burning through his body and the hot sweaty night club back outside this bathroom. The whole world was spinning. He wanted to go home and sleep. He felt a hand rubbing his back comfortingly.

“Julian?” He asked, his voice slow and slurred.

“No, bud. It’s Danny.”

“Avidaaaan?”

“Yes, Avidan.”

“Brian here told me you went to see Arin the other day. That true, buddy?” Danny asked.

Chris nodded before throwing up again in the toilet. Dan just patted his back. Arms pulled him back from the toilet and Chris couldn’t even keep himself sitting up. He ended up laying on the dirty bathroom floor, Dan and Brian looking down at him.

“Should we find Julian and Ding Dong?” Brian asked.

“Normally, I’d say no, but he’s totally wasted.”

Chris saw them look away as there was a loud bang. He didn’t know what it was, but it made him groan. This was the part of being drunk that wasn’t fun. Maybe if he drank more, he’d go back to the giggly and happy stage, but for some reason he just felt nothing but sadness and sickness. He blinked and the faces were replaced by..Ding Dong and Julian? Those couldn’t actually be them. He must have been seeing things.

He was suddenly being dragged backwards. He heard shouting, arguing. Chris tried to look at what was going on. Julian was holding onto him, pulling him out of the stall. Ding Dong was shouting at Dan. Dan was talking back, but not quite shouting yet. Chris could see a gun in Ding Dong’s hand.

“Ding-” He tried to say, but it came out soft. At this point, one thought crossed his mind and it was all he wanted. “Arin,”

Julian froze and looked down at him. “What?”

“Arin? Where is he?” Chris asked.

“Chris, Arin is a Grump,” Julian said. “He’s your enemy!”

“Ain’t m’enemy. I like him, Jules. Like, like you like Dingus.”

“Chris, you’re drunk. Stop talking.”

“But Jules-”

“Stop talking!” He hissed, putting a hand over his mouth.

Ding Dong walked over to the two of them and soon, Chris was up on his feet, arms slung around the shoulders of his friends. Ding Dong glared at Dan and Brian as they left the bathroom, carrying Chris with them. He had no idea why Ding Dong was so angry and he probably never would know. He’d have to deal with an angry Ding Dong later and if Ding Dong had any kind of sympathy in him, he’d wait till Chris was sober, but who knew if he’d even remember the night’s events by that point?

As the trio left the nightclub and headed towards the bike, they swerved this way and that with Chris, who, at this point, was loudly singing Irish drinking songs. What a night.


	6. The Hangover

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chris is hungover and decides to call someone. Julian makes a revelation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter, but things are going to start happening I promise.

And so it came to pass that Chris O’Neill was horribly hungover the next day. Being hungover was nothing new. He’d been hungover plenty of times before. This was nothing new. What  _ was _ new however was waking up to texts from Dan Avidan after two years of no contact with him. Chris rolled over to find the alert blinking on his phone. He unlocked his phone to see what Dan had left him.

_ Dan: _

_ Chris just hope you got home okay. DD seemed pretty upset _

_ Dan: _

_Text me when you see this, ok? Worried about you_ _  
__Dan:_

_ Arin says hi _

Chris furrowed his brow looking at the string of texts. Why would Dan care about him getting home and why would he be worried about him? He didn’t really want to reply, knowing the taboo of contacting a grump when he was one of Motifa’s archangels, but he had to let Danny know that he wasn’t passed out in a gutter somewhere. It was only right.

_ Chris: _

_ Got home fine. Hungover. Dont remember last night. Hi Arin. _

He sat his phone aside, not really wanting to see whatever reply would come from Dan. He knew already whatever drunk Chris did was going to make many things worse for sober Chris. Drunk Chris was always an asshole it seemed. As he tried to collect his thought about the night before, he began wondering why he even went drinking in the first place. He could have told Ding Dong and Julian everything that was happening. He could have been ratted out to Motifa. Getting drunk in his line of work was dangerous. 

Chris swung his feet over the side of the bed to get up,  rubbing his tired eyes. He had laid in bed long enough today he decided. There was still time to make something out of this day and not just waste it being hungover.  He had to stop himself from drinking more, which was his usual solution to a hangover. Make it future Chris's problem. Today he was future chris and he hated it. 

Step one was trying to remember as much as he could from the night before. He remembered going to the bar and drinking. He remembered seeing Ding Dong and Julian making out. It was fuzzy, but he knew after one drink Ding would end up affectionate, so it was highly probably that memory was correct. Clearly by the text Dan was there, and Ding Dong wasn’t happy about him being there, but Chris couldn’t keep the fuzzy memories straight. He couldn’t remember a damn thing. It was all a haze. 

Chris’s phone buzzed from a text, but he didn't bother looking. He didn’t really wanna know who was trying to contact him. He hoped it was Dan, but at the same time, he really hoped it wasn’t. He was already pushing his luck interacting with the Grumps again, but he couldn’t stay away. It was like a drug. All the past memories were resurfacing inside him. All the emotions and feelings he had when being a Grump and he just couldn’t stop.

Chris picked up his phone, not bothering to look at the texts. He scrolled through his contacts before he selected a number and called. The ring seemed dull against his ear as he waited and soon, there was a response.

“Hey, it’s uh, it’s me.” Chris said. “I have to see you, okay? Meet me at the pier at noon.”

He didn’t wait for the reply. He hung up. Chris ran a hand through his hair with a sigh. This was a stupid idea. He was so fucking stupid, yet here he was. He was going to run after someone he knew would never see him in the same light. He was going to risk everything he had just to get another shot at running at them again. If the universe was going to give him that shot, then he was going to take it right by the tits and milk that son of a bitch.

 

* * *

 

Julian blew on his coffee for what seemed like a millionth time. He heard Ding Dong snicker about it, which caused him to look up at his alien boyfriend.

“I don’t want to burn my mouth,” He said.

“You’re such a baby. I love it.”

“Shut up, you dork.”

Ding Dong leaned across the table and kissed him. 

The two were enjoying breakfast together after a late night out. Chris was still sleeping, and probably would be for most of the day, and Motifa had left to do God knows what. They didn’t question her. Ding Dong had made eggs and the two were content with their meal and their closeness.

“Julian,” Ding Dong began using that tone of voice that said he was about to ask something serious. “Do you think Chris is alright?”

“Alright?” Julian echoed.

“He’s been awfully different lately. I thought maybe a drink or two would help, but after seeing him with Dan and Brian-”

“You’re worried he’s going to go back?”

Ding Dong did not reply. Julian took his hand and rubbed it with his thumb. They were both worried about Chris as if they were his parents. Most of Chris’s history was a mystery to them since he never opened up about it, but they did know he used to be a Grump member. 

“He’s not going to leave us,” Julian assured.

“How do you know?” Ding Dong asked. “He’s been..just, I can’t even explain it, Jules! This isn’t our Chris! He’s so different now! What changed?”

“Ding, our little Christopher is in love.”


	7. A Gentle Reminder

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chris and Arin plan a meeting, but things don't go right. Also, Dan is a sweetheart.

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Danny asked concerned. Arin was pulling on his gloves, preparing to leave the Grump space to meet up with Chris at the pier. The Irishman had called not too long ago telling him to meet him only to hang up right  away. Arin had immediately decided to go, but Dan wasn’t too sure about the situation.

“It’s Chris. I trust him.” Arin said.

“What if this is an ambush?” Dan fretted. “What if they kill you? Let me go with you.”

“No, Dan. You’re staying here.” Arin picked up his pistol and placed it in the holster on his hip. Dan shifted unhappily watching Arin gather what he needed. He knew there was no use fighting Arin when he set his mind on something, but his concern for his best friend’s safety tried to push past that.

“Arin, please just let me come,” Dan begged.

Arin sighed and turned to look at him. “Dan, if it is some kind of setup, I can’t risk you or anyone else getting hurt."

He headed out of his office and down the hall with Dan trailing behind him. Of course, Arin preparing to leave did bring unwanted attention. Brian already knew of course. He knew everything. The problem was that it caught the attention of Ross.

The Australian cut Arin off, standing in front of him in the hallway.

“Ross, move.” Arin ordered.

“Make me, why don’t you?”

“You do know I am your boss,”

“You do know you can shove it up your ass if you think I’m letting you meet O’Neill.”

“How do you know about that?” Arin asked, anger beginning to rise in his voice.

Ross did not answer the question. Instead he chose to stare down his boss. The tension between the two of them was sending shivers down Dan’s spine, but there was no way he was getting in the middle of these two. On their own, they each were deadly. Together they were unstoppable. Pitting them against each other was just asking for nothing but trouble.

“Ross, I’m not going to tell you again. Move.” Arin demanded.

“I’m sorry to do this, Arin, but you’ve forced my hand.” Ross replied. Before either Arin or Dan could question what he meant, Dan was being shoved roughly into the wall. He heard a loud smack before a thud. He quickly collected himself to find Brian standing over an unconscious Arin. Dan felt like he was going to be sick.

“Brian, what the fuck?” He demanded.

“I’m sorry, but I’m with Ross on this.” Brian said. “Motifa is too dangerous. No way O’Neill would just call Arin like that if it wasn’t a trap. He’s too stupid.”

Now it was Dan’s turn to be angry.

“His name is Chris. Chris O’Neill. He used to be part of our family!” Dan shouted. “Now you’re both acting like he’s the helper to the devil! You both loved him! Don’t you remember any of that?”

Ross looked at Brian and nodded. Brian was on Dan before he knew it, pinning him to the wall and forcing Dan’s hands behind his back.

“You’re not getting in the way of this, Dan.” Ross said. “From now on, I’m going to be the leader of the Grumps. Not Arin. Not you.”

Dan struggled against Brian, but he was too damn strong.

“And,” Ross continued on, walking away from them. “I’m gonna give our little O’Neill a warning about messing with the Grumps. One he’s not gonna forget.”

 

* * *

 

Chris let out a sigh, adjusting his hoodie. He kicked his feet in the air as he sat on the dock of the pier. Before him was an endless ocean of blue with only white cloud peppering the sky of break the two vast plains of blue. As Chris sat waiting, his thoughts began to run. Memories of his past came up and soon all his thoughts were locked on Arin. His voice, his hair, his eyes-

Chris shook his head trying to stop himself. What the fuck was wrong with him? Why couldn’t he stop thinking of Arin? He couldn’t let this happen again. Chris had started falling for his boss and friend before back when he was a grump. It got in the way of his work and he ended up running away and going on his own. That was when he met Motifa. He had expected to not cross paths with Arin again, except for maybe a text or two. Now here he was at the pier waiting for Arin to arrive so Chris could word vomit everything he felt.

Maybe Julian was right. Maybe keeping Arin as his enemy in his head was a better idea than letting himself love him. Running away from the problem had worked for the most part. At least, it had until Arin had found himself outside the gunshop. Chris knew he had been doomed as soon as he saw Arin approach. He had felt the similar heart flutter upon seeing Arin, but he had tried to blame it on the nostalgia of an old friend.

“Chris?” A voice asked behind him.

Chris turned, knowing the voice was not Arin’s. He didn’t know what to expect, but seeing Ross was definitely _not_ one of the things he expected to see. Ross was dressed in basic street clothes. He must have been trying to blend in with society.

“Where’s Arin?” Chris asked, getting up.

“He had to cancel,” Ross said. “And I’m his messenger today. You’re to never contact him again, Chris. Understand?”

“Wait, what?”

Ross reached into his back pocket and pulled a pistol. He aimed it right at him.

“You’re not a grump anymore, O’Neill. Quit thinking you are.”

“Holy fuck, Ross! Put that down!”

“I don’t know what you think you’re doing, but I’m not gonna watch your demon of a boss try and work herself into this city. I don’t know what she is, but she’s definitely not a human and not an alien like Ding Dong. Take this as a warning, O’Neill. If you, or any of your crew, show your faces near Grump territory again, we will shoot without hesitation.”

Chris’s mouth was dry. His tongue was in knots in his throat. The moment seemed to play in slow motion around him as he tried to process what was happening. His brain tried to analyse the situation to find out what had went wrong and when. All he could come up with was that Arin didn’t trust him and sent Ross to kill him, but he wouldn’t really do that right? Arin wasn’t that kind of guy. He couldn’t be that kind of guy.

“Understand, Chris?” Ross asked. Chris found himself nodding.

“Good boy, but let’s make sure you don’t forget, okay?”

The air was ripped apart by a loud crack of a bullet.

 

* * *

 

Chris’s eyes slowly opened to a ceiling. He blinked a few times trying to let the fuzzy image come into focus. This wasn’t his ceiling, and he certainly hadn’t been a building before. Chris sat up carefully. His leg hurt like a mother fucker, but he could feel pressure around it like gauze. The pain wasn’t anything like the burning agony that it had been when Ross first shot him. It was lessened. Thank God it had just been his leg. Chris rubbed his eyes and looked around. He was in a bed. It wasn’t his bed and this wasn’t his room. There were band posters on the walls, clothing scattered on the floor, records and cds in stacks. This was definitely not his room.

The door opened and Chris looked over.

“Chris?” Dan asked, peeking in.

“Where am I? Danny?” Chris asked confused.

“You’re at my house,” Dan said gently coming in. “I trailed Ross when he went after you. I couldn’t stand by and watch him hurt you. Thank God I found you when I did. You could have died.”

Chris smiled some. “Thanks, Dan.”

Dan sat down in a rolling swivel chair by his desk and rolled over to the side of the bed. “No problem, Chris. Ross might not see it, but you’re still part of the family in my book. I’m not gonna let anyone in my family get hurt or killed. Not on my watch.”

“Dan, you’re one great guy.” Chris said.

“Thank you. I called Ding Dong and Julian. They’ll be here soon to get you.”

“You told them?”

“You got shot, bud. I had to.”

“Fair point.”

“Just rest up till they get here okay?” Dan got up from the chair. “And I heard what Ross said. Arin doesn’t hate you. He was going to come see you.”

Dan didn’t know it as he left the room, but he had given Chris something better than medicine. He gave him hope.


	8. A Night To Ourselves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ding Dong and Julian take Chris out for drinks 3 weeks later to get his mind off things. Chris isn't coping with the situation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story has been a stress reliever for me and I've had so much fun writing it so far. We're no where near finished, but I wanna again thank you guys for reading this. It really means a lot to me seeing the kudos and comments on this.

Chris’s hand trembled slightly as he took another shot. He slammed the glass down on the counter and wiped his mouth. He was already getting drunk and he knew it. For once he wanted to be drunk. He wanted to get so drunk that he didn’t remember a thing. Julian and Ding Dong were on either side of him. They had chosen not to drink tonight after hearing Chris’s plan to get fucking wasted. He was going to need two sober friends to keep him from getting injured or killed at the club tonight.

It had been three weeks since Ross had shot him on the pier. Not once had he stopped thinking about the situation in those three weeks. He hadn’t been contacted by anyone since then. Not Arin, Ross, Brian, or even Dan. It was like they were all avoiding him like the plague now. Not to mention Motifa was now breathing down his neck to kill Arin already. She kept threatening to send another person out on the job or do it herself, but Ding Dong and Julian managed to convince her to give him more time each time it was brought up. Killing Arin would only create a huge amount of trouble now that this shit storm had broken out between Motifa’s Archangels and the Grumps.

“Fuck them,” Chris said. “Fuck them all to Hell!”

“That’s not how that saying goes, Chris.” Ding Dong pointed out.

“Who the hell cares!? Another shot!” Chris demanded.

“I think you’ve had enough,” Julian said, moving the shot glass away from Chris.

“I’m not drunk enough! I’m still thinking!” Chris said.

Ding Dong sighed. If he had a nose to pinch the bridge of, he would be. 

“Fine, one more.” 

Ding Dong flagged down the bartender, getting Chris another shot. Chris downed it easily slamming the cup back down. Finally, he had decided he was drunk enough. His head was swimming, the music around him was becoming a buzz. If it wasn’t for the bass thumping in his chest he might not have remembered there was music playing at all. Chris got up from his seat and began to wander off. It was a habit of his whenever he was drunk to wander around. It usually ended up getting Chris into trouble, which was why his friends had decided to pass on the drinking tonight and just follow him around.

He had been a mess since they had picked him up from Danny’s place. Chris never wanted to talk about what happened or why he was meeting Arin at the pier. He had kept to himself for the most part since then. Not to mention he was a mess physically. He was wounded after all and Chris had to constantly be taking care of himself so the wound never got infected. Even now, he walked with a limp as he pushed through the crowds of sweaty people on the dance floor. The dull ache of the bullet wound wasn’t a concern of his anymore, really. It was just noise in the background of the rest of his fucked up life. 

Chris looked over his shoulder to see Ding Dong and Julian trailing him. He could see their red bandanas marking them as his friends. It made them stand out against the crowd. It screamed that they were a group. For once, Chris didn’t want to be in this group. He wanted to tear the bandana off his arm and throw it in the ocean and forget this life. He wanted to be normal again and not have to worry about killing potential lovers or worrying about your friends ratting you out to a crime boss who could kill you with her laser eyes.

Okay so the last part seemed silly now when Chris thought about it, but that was actually just his life at the moment. His whole life seemed like one fucked up joke. It was like his life was some game that someone took mods to just to make a funny video at his expense. He wanted it all to stop, and if that was going to happen he had to lose Ding Dong and Julian immediately. Instead of pushing on, Chris doubled back towards them. He pulled Ding Dong into a surprise hug once they met back up.

“Uh, Chris?” Ding Dong asked a little awkwardly.

“I love you, Dingus.” Chris said, his speech slurring. “You guys are my family.”

“Aw, we love you too.” Julian said.

“No man, I mean it you’re both like my brothers. I fucking LOVE you.”

Okay, so some of this really was just drunk Chris getting in the way, but he couldn’t really stop it. Chris was horribly intoxicated after all. 

“We love you, Chris.” Ding Dong said with a smile. Chris slung his arms around their shoulders and laughed.

“Did I ever tell you both I was a Grump?”

God damn it, drunk Chris.

“Honestly, Chris, we figured that out.” Julian admitted.

“Yeah, okay, but DID YOU KNOW I had a HUGE crush on Arin so I left because he was dating Suzy and like that’s a shitty thing for me to do to him?”

GOD DAMN IT, DRUNK CHRIS.

“Wait, what?” Julian asked.

“Yeah I mean like they were  _ really _ close and he really liked her! Told me all the time! I had this massive crush on him and holy fuck was I  _ sad _ . So I ran away! I only told Danny about it so no one ever knew!” Chris began laughing. 

“Chris, you ran away?” Ding Dong asked, concerned.

“Yeeeeeaaaaaah,”

“But weren’t you like, one of the most wanted in the city?”

“Yeeeeeeeeeeeah,”

“Egoraptor and Oney were like the most wanted men in the entire state!” 

“Yeah that was us!”

The duo exchanged a look of concern and surprise.

“Chris, do you know how dangerously stupid that was?!” Ding Dong demanded. “You could have been arrested or worse, killed!”

“Yeah, but Mama Motifa saved me. She killed all the cops and brought me home. She’s my only family other than you guys!” Chris laughed, swaying a little with them. He then let go of them and began to wander. “I’m gonna go take a piss!”

The duo watched him, but this time they did not follow. Chris headed towards the bathroom, but changed his course and headed out the backdoor into a small alleyway. The air felt cold compared to the hot atmosphere of the night club and as he breathed he could see his breath. Fall was coming which would bring winter.  It was hard to believe another year was passing right in front of his eyes. 

Chris reached into his pocket taking out a box of cigarettes and a lighter. He placed one in his mouth, then struggled to light it. His hands were unsteady from the booze. Chris chewed on the filter of the cigarette trying to keep it in place, but if it wasn’t the cigarette wiggling around, it was the lighter not staying on. He kept at it again and again, but he failed every time. Drunken tears of frustration clouded his vision and he he tried to blink them away, but a few escaped down his pale cheeks.

“Having trouble, Oney?” 

Chris looked over to see Arin walking down the alley towards him. Chris turned away.

“You don’t get to call me that anymore.”

“Oney,”  Arin’s voice was behind him now.

“I said, shut up!” Chris turned, slapping his hand in his direction. Thankfully, he hit Arin’s hand that was reaching for him. Chris had no idea of course, but he was glad to not have hit him. Arin looked him over for a moment as Chris struggled with the light.

“Since when did you smoke?” He asked.

“Since I stole it from Ding Dong five minutes ago.” Chris replied bitterly.

“Since when did he-”

“He’s an alien and his biology is different so cigarettes don’t give him fucking cancer.”

Arin nodded accepting this answer and not really wanting to question it more. He reached over, taking the lighter from Chris’s shaking fingers. He clicked it on with a steady hand, lighting the cigarette for Chris. Chris tried to breathe it in, but he coughed horribly dropping it. Arin stomped on it right away putting it out.

“Done now?” He asked.

Chris still refused to acknowledge him.

“Alright, look, I didn’t know what Ross was doing. He and Brian ambushed me, okay? I was coming to meet you like you asked. I trusted you, Chris. I wouldn’t just leave you like that.”

“Yeah, well because of you, Ross fucking shot me!” Chris snapped.

“He what!?”

“Shot me right in the mother fucking leg, Arin! I’m done with you guys! Fuck you! I can’t believe for a moment I actually liked you! What the fuck was wrong with me?” Chris angrily rubbed at his watering eyes. He hated that he was emotional, but it was so hard to control his feelings right now. He wasn’t a great drunk. Arin’s face had softened as he now saw how much this situation was hurting Chris. He put his hands in his pockets and sighed.

“Chris, I’m sorry for all this happening. Really, I am. I’m grateful that you didn’t kill me and I’m still alive, but I can’t help but coming back to the same question,”

“Oh? What’s that, dipshit?” Chris spat at him. 

“Why’d you spare me?”

Chris blinked a few times in shock. There was no way he could answer this.

“I’ve seen your work. You’ve killed more in sniper shots than I have, and I run a drug trading ring. I know you’ve killed people you were friends with. We all have. So why did you spare me? Why did you run away from us the first time? You never let us know why. I thought you were dead until I saw you with Ding Dong and Julian downtown.” 

Arin moved closer, putting a hand on Chris’s shoulder. Chris couldn’t look him in the eyes. 

“Arin, I..”

Chris swallowed and looked up at him.

“I’m in love with you, Arin Hanson. I was before. I couldn’t stand by watching you and Suzy and I knew how much you cared about her. I mean, you’re perfect together. Absolutely perfect...and, you can’t be perfect with me hanging around.”

Arin’s hand moved down to Chris’s arm. He slid a finger under the bandana on his upper arm. “So you went and got this? Got marked by Motifa?”

“I didn’t know what else to do,” Chris’s voice was broken and tears were clouding his vision. “The police were after me. They were shooting. I almost got killed. I was scared, Arin. I’d never been on my own like that before. You took me in when I lost my parents and I just always followed you and Dan.”

Chris wiped at his eyes actually crying now. “I didn’t want to go to prison! I don’t want to do this anymore, Arin! I wanna live a normal life!” 

Arin pulled him into a hug and just let the drunk Irishman cry on his shoulder. He rubbed his back comfortingly. There were so many things that had just been thrown at him and he was doing his best to process it all while being there for Chris. 

“Chris, why don’t we just forget all that tonight, okay?” Arin offered. “Look, we’re at a club and Ding Dong and Julian are inside. Let’s go get a drink, have some fun, maybe dance a bit. Tonight let’s forget we’re hitmen and drug dealers. Let’s just be dumb kids and do dumb things.”

Chris smiled and nodded.

“I wanna do something really dumb.”

“There’s my Oney boy! Let’s do it. Do something moronic.” Arin said, happy to see Chris cheered up and no longer crying. 

Chris suddenly grabbed Arin’s shoulders pulling him close and planted a kiss right on his lips. If he was going to be a dumb kid tonight, he was gonna do what dumb kid Chris was too scared to do, and tonight that was kiss Arin Hanson.

And kiss Arin Hanson that night he did.

 


	9. His Earth Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chris gets a warning that he doesn't listen to. Also Dingdulian fluff.

Hands roamed bodies, mouths clashed in a messy flurry of kisses,and Chris was on cloud nine. He was pinned up against the wall of the alley as Arin made out with him. He had never imagined kissing him would be like this. The slight scratch of his facial hair couldn’t distract Chris from the softness of his lips. 

“Arin,” Chris said softly against the kiss. He had so much to say, but none of it could come out. Not at this moment. It would ruin what had become perfect. Arin moved back leaving Chris leaning forward expecting more kisses.

“Chris, I need you to listen to me.” Arin said. “This is really important, okay? It’s the real reason I came looking for you. You and your friends are in danger.”

Chris couldn’t focus. He heard Arin mention danger, but after that the words began to melt in a haze of sounds and words. The meanings didn’t match up with the sounds and Chris found himself completely lost as Arin rambled on. He just wanted him to stop talking and keep kissing him. Chris moved forward and hugged Arin, nuzzling in against his neck.

“Chris are you even listening?” Arin asked.

“Yeah, I heard every word.” Chris lied.

Arin moved away from him his hands on Chris’s shoulders to steady him.

“Go back inside, find Ding Dong and Julian and get the fuck out of this city before shit starts going down. Understand? Repeat what I said.”

“Find Dingus and Jules, go home.”

“Close enough.”

* * *

The air outside the club was freezing in comparison to inside as Ding Dong stepped out. He laughed some as Julian slid an arm around the alien’s waist. Ding Dong and Julian had decided to enjoy themselves a little bit after losing Chris. After searching the club high and low, they had found him making out with Arin and after all the shit that had been happening, they decided to let it go. Chris deserved to be happy for once. Neither Ding Dong or Julian were drunk. They had to keep Chris safe, and especially since Ding Dong had to drive them home. 

“It’s a bit nippy, Jules.” Ding Dong said rubbing his exposed arms. Almost immediately, Julian took off his leather jacket and placed it over Ding Dong’s shoulders. Ding Dong smiled and kissed Julian’s cheek in return.

“Thank you,” He said.

“No problem,”

It never failed. Ding Dong just had to utter those words and he’d get to wear Julian’s jacket, even if it was the middle of the summer. Julian would never deny Ding Dong’s request. The duo headed back to the motorcycle that was parked along the sidewalk of the night club. 

“Do you think it’s wise leaving Chris alone?” Ding Dong asked. Julian shrugged.

“No idea, but he’s with Arin so it can’t be too bad. Besides, we’re not his parents.”

Ding Dong slid his hands through the sleeves of the jacket before he climbed onto the motorcycle. Julian got on behind him, wrapping his arms around Ding Dong’s middle and nuzzling his head into the alien’s neck.

“Hey, I love you, Ding.” He said.

“I love you too, Jules.”

Ding Dong brought the motor to life and sped off into the night. He loved being on the motorcycle. Granted not all of them were here now, but he loved knowing they were all together. The feeling of Julian holding onto him, the wind in his face, Chris laughing from the sidecar. It was all so perfect to him. They were his family. Coming to Earth hadn’t even been an idea for Ding Dong. He had crashed, but he was so grateful now that his piloting systems had malfunctioned and landed him here. 

His home planet was much different to Earth. Sure Planet Chicago was a nice place, but it didn’t have the atmosphere like this place did. The feeling of riding late at night through the busy city had a charm. They didn’t have motorcycles on Planet Chicago. They had similar vehicles, but nothing like motorcycles. The way the engine purred, the feel of the handles against his hand pads...it made his heart flutter. 

“Ding look out!” Julian shouted. A car was coming right at them in their lane. Ding Dong swerved the motorcycle into another lane and thankfully the car passed without any injury. Ding Dong could only glance back over his shoulder quickly before looking back to the road.

“Fucking Christ!” He shouted.

“That idiot was in our lane! What the hell was he thinking?” Julian shouted back. 

“He wasn't! That’s what he was thinking!” 

“You think they were drunk?”

“They fucking had to be!”

 

* * *

 

The alarm went off at 9 a.m. exactly just like it did every morning. Ding Dong rolled over with a yawn and shut it off before sitting up in bed. Julian’s arms were still around him, which were now placed in his lap from Ding Dong sitting up. He smiled and looked down at the sleeping man. He was so warm and cuddly. Maybe a few more minutes cuddling wouldn’t hurt. After all, Julian’s arms were so warm and inviting.

No, it was time to get up. If Ding Dong didn’t get up now, he’d get nothing done today. Ding Dong stretched and scratched his back with his claws. He gently shook Julian’s shoulder trying to wake him.

“Jules, time to get up. It’s nine again.”

“Ugh, nooo.”

Ding Dong chuckled at this response. Julian tried to snuggle down into the covers, but Ding Dong pulled the covers back away from him. He ran his claws gently up Julian’s arm and shoulder before scratching under the side of his chin. A smile spread on Julian’s face as he opened his eyes and looked up at Ding Dong. He scrunched up his neck and shoulders, pinning the alien’s fingers.

“Morning sleepy bear,” Ding Dong purred.

“Mornin’ Ding.” Julian replied.

Ding Dong got out of bed and stretched. He was dressed in one of Julian’s shirts as per usual. He’d get dressed properly later.  There were a few things to do first besides the normal morning routine. He had to feed the cat, start the coffee machine, and check on Chris. Ding Dong had barely taken two steps out the bedroom door before their shared family cat rubbed against his legs. She was a sandy colored tabby cat.

“Morning Waffle,” Ding Dong reached down and pet Waffle’s head. She meowed in response before walking away from him. They had found Waffle during one of their heists and Chris had snuck her back home in his bag. You could argue Waffle was Chris’s cat since he found her, named her, and spent the most time with her, but Waffle adored them all. Whenever Ding Dong would work on coding games in his free time, she was always there in his lap asleep. Waffle also never missed a snack with Julian or play time with Chris. Waffle even liked Motifa. So they agreed she was everyone’s cat.

Ding Dong followed Waffle expecting her to go to an empty food bowl, but she wandered over to Chris’s door. She pawed at the closed door and meowed at Ding Dong. He chuckled. 

“Did Chris shut you out, Waffie?” He opened the door and Waffle slide inside.

Ding Dong followed her inside. He had to check on their hungover friend after all. The curtains were drawn and prevented light from getting into the room. Ding Dong squinted in the dark at the bed trying to make out Chris’s form. His heart dropped right into his stomach and Ding Dong immediately shouted for Julian.

Chris wasn’t home. Chris always made it home, even when he was drunk.

Something was terribly wrong.

 


	10. Interrogation: The Ross Way

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNING! This chapter contains a torture scene and graphic imagery.   
> Possible triggers are teeth pulling, beating, vomiting, cutting  
> If you wish to skip this chapter, feel free. I will write below the important information in this chapter to continue reading. 
> 
> In this chapter, Ross kidnaps and tortures Chris. Ross tells Chris that he was behind everything that has happened so far and he's been manipulating the situation since the beginning. He also tried to run DD and Julian off the road.

Chris let out a groan. His head was killing him and he could feel it pounding already without even having opened his eyes. God damn hangovers. He really needed to stop drinking like this. As he began to open his eyes, Chris realized he was not in a bed nor was he at home. He was in an empty room, save for one metal table, a folding chair, and a standing flood light. The flood light was off. There was no light in the room. Chris thought he could see lines of fluorescents on the ceiling, but in the darkness, he couldn’t be sure. The chilly air was the only thing that tipped him off to the fact that his hoodie and bandana were missing and so were his shoes and socks. Chris only had on a white tank top and his jeans. What the fuck?

When he tried to move, he found his hands tied behind his back. At this, Chris began to panic. He tried to move his legs, but they were tied as well. Someone had kidnapped him after he blacked out last night. He tried to put it together, but his memories were fuzzy. He couldn’t hardly keep his thoughts straight with the pounding headache and the fear. Surely Ding Dong and Julian knew he was missing, right? They had gone to the club with him the night before. Yeah, he was totally missed! They’d be looking for him right now with Motifa! He hoped to God they noticed. He didn’t know what was instore for him, but Chris didn’t want to find out.

The door on the other side of the room creaked open slowly letting light flood the room. Chris had to turn his head away to keep the light from blinding him. He heard the sounds of squeaking wheels as something was being pushed into the room along with footsteps. The door slammed shut and with a click the flood light was on. All the light was aimed at Chris. Someone was standing in front of the light and Chris couldn’t figure out who it was.

“Well, if it isn’t O’Neill. Long time no see, Chris.”

“Ross?”

Ross moved away from the flood light so Chris could see him properly. He was wearing an old tee shirt that clearly had blood stains all over it and jeans to match. Next to Ross was what looked like a medical cart. Ross picked up a white apron off the cart and pulled it over his head and began to tie it behind him.

“You know, I hated to see it come to this, Chris, but you’ve forced my hand.” Ross said.

“Ross, what the fuck is going on? Where am I?” Chris demanded.

Ross pulled on a latex glove onto one hand and balled his hand into a fist as if testing the glove. He chuckled some and looked over at Chris while he slid on the other glove.

“You’re at the grump space. As to what’s going on, I need information and you’re going to give it to me. Also, this is punishment for not listening to me.” Ross turned back to the cart looking at items that from his perspective Chris could not see. 

“Where should we start, Chris? Shocks? Cuts? Burns?”

“Fuck you, Ross. You don’t have the balls!” 

Ross turned to look at him, a sickening smile on his face. 

“Why don’t we just see if that’s true?”

Ross picked up a baseball bat from off the table. His footsteps seemed to echo in the room as he moved closer to Chris. Ross lifted it above his head and slammed it down on Chris’s knees. A scream of pain ripped out of Chris’s throat as he tried to move in legs away from Ross. However, Ross’s next target was Chris’s face. The baseball bat smashed into the side of Chris’s face knocking him over. 

“Who’s got balls now, Chris?” Ross demanded standing over him. “Now, tell me, what is Motifa?”

“ _ What!? _ ” Chris exclaimed. 

“I said what is she?” Ross demanded. He brought the bat down onto Chris’s side earning another painful shout out of him.

“Fucking Christ, Ross! I don’t fucking know!”

“Yes you do. Answer the damn question.” Ross grabbed Chris’s hair and yanked him back up. Chris couldn’t help but grunt in pain at his hair being pulled. He didn’t understand what Ross was asking, but he had to come up with something.

“I don’t know, a fucking goddess or witch maybe? You think I actually know?”

“Wrong fucking answer.” Ross punched him square in the face. He held onto Chris’s white tank top to force Chris to stay sitting up as Ross kept punching him over and over again. When Ross finally let go of him, Chris fell back onto his side again. Blood dripped down his face from his broken nose. Chris’s left eye was beginning to swell. His whole face ached and, no doubt, was as red as could be. He spit out the blood in his mouth onto the floor.

“Arin told me what you did.”

Chris froze and looked up at him.

“He told me how you kissed him at the nightclub. He was disgusted by you.”

“You’re a fucking liar!” 

“He thinks you’re putrid. Getting drunk and kissing him like that. You’re pathetic.”

“Fuck you!”

This earned him another beating of his knees with the baseball bat. Ross wailed on him over and over again. Tears of pain were filling Chris’s eyes. He tried so hard to hold them back, but he pain was too much. Ross was using all his strength on each swing and the wooden bat had good weight on it. Chris screamed with each blow he received, but never would he beg for him to stop. He wouldn’t give into Ross that easily. 

Ross finally moved away from him, tossing the bat onto the floor.

“Look at you. How could anyone love you? I should have just killed you at the pier. Put you out of your misery. The world would be better off.”

“What the fuck do you want from me?” Chris asked, his voice already frightened and not like his own. Ross went back over to the medical cart looking over it.

“Information, Chris. You’re a terrible listener, aren’t you?”

He picked up a scalpel. Ross held it up into the light. “Beautiful, isn’t it?”

“You’re a sick fuck!” 

Ross slipped on a face mask before turning to face Chris. “Perhaps I am. Tell me, Chris. Why did you even decide on this career choice?” 

“Why the fuck do you even care?”

“I don’t, but I find that if you talk while I work, you’ll scream less.”

Ross crouched in front of him with the scalpel and pushed up Chris’s left pant leg.  He made a small incision right below Chris’s knee with a quick movement of his scalpel. Chris bucked his legs, trying to make him stop, but Ross put a hand on his leg and forced it down. Ross repeated this on the other knee. 

“What the fuck are you even doing!?” Chris shouted. 

“Cutting you, Chris. You can’t possibly be that dense. Hurts, doesn’t it?” Ross was smiling under the surgical mask. Chris wanted to spit in his face. He was deranged madman. Ross began to make more cuts on Chris’s legs. Some were light, almost like paper cuts, other were deep and almost became stabs, but they didn’t go lower than the skin layers. The speed and amount of pressure he applied determined how deep the cuts were. Chris couldn’t lie, some of the worst ones were the lightest ones. They felt like paper cuts.

“Where did she come from?” Ross asked making another cut. He didn’t even look at Chris. Ross acted like he was painting and it needed all his focus.

“She just, fell outta the sky one day!” Chris said. “I swear! I only know what she told me! That was all! She never said where she was from or what she is!”

Ross stood up. “Finally, some cooperation.”

“Look, I don’t even know that much about her!” Chris insisted. 

Ross cocked an eyebrow skeptical at him. 

“My point is, I’ll tell you what I know if that means you’ll let me go, but it’s not gonna be much. Fuck, Ross, please.” Chris said with a slight beg. Okay, maybe he wasn’t above a little bit of begging. 

“I bet Arin would love to hear you beg like this.”

“Excuse me, what?”

“He does love a good torture session, maybe I should let him watch?”

Ross walked back over to the cart and sat the scalpel down. He chuckled to himself some looking over his tools. “You know, you’re easier to manipulate than I thought.”

“What?”

Ross picked up a pair of pliers. “Chris, who do you think put the hit on Arin?”

“Wait, you don’t mean-? That was you?”

“Of course it was me. I knew you couldn’t do it because of your dumb crush on him. You did everything according to plan, Chris. Absolutely perfect.” Ross walked back over to him a kneeled in front of him. “Who do you think pointed out to Arin that you were at the gun store while he got Sushi Panda? Who sent Danny and Brian to the nightclub to make sure you didn’t get yourself killed? Who made sure Arin was there when you were weak?”

Chris’s mouth was agape in shock.

“It was me the whole time, Chris.”

“But, but you overtook Arin!”

“Which gave him motive to go find you at the club after I attacked you,” 

Ross grabbed Chris’s chin making him look Ross in the eyes.

“Isn’t it sweet? You actually thought you were making your own choices. Because of you, everything is going to go according to plan.”

“What plan?”

“Sh, sh. We’ll talk later. Right now, it’s time for some fun.” Ross purred. He grabbed Chris’s shirt and hauled him up. Ross ended up using his other arm to stabilize Chris and half guide, half drag him over to the folding chair. Ross picked up what looked like some kind of metal dental gag off the cart. He forced Chris’s head bag and shoved the gag inside, pushing Chris’s mouth open. Chris tried to fight it, but the pain from the beatings made it hard. Blood dripping into his mouth as Ross secured the device and the pain in Chris’s nose flared to full force as his lips were pushed up against it.

Chris tried to speak in protest, but they were more like noises and half formed words due to the gag forcing his mouth open. Ross held up the pliers in his hand laughing. Fear washed over Chris as he realized where this was going. Ross took hold of one of Chris’s top front teeth with the pliers. Ross was smiling at him. Chris could see it in his eyes. Was he getting some kind of sick high out of this?

Ross yanked his hand back suddenly and ripped the tooth right out. Chris screamed against the gag. Blood welled up in the hole and mixed with the spit pooling in his mouth. Ross immediately took hold of a bottom canine. With a swift yank, that one too was removed. The blood from both teeth began running down Chris’s chin as the saliva escaped with each scream of pain and jerk Chris gave. Blood was now speckling Ross’s face mask. 

“You know, I saw Ding Dong and Julian abandoning you last night.” Ross said. He pushed Chris’s head back some more. He pushed a thumb into Chris’s mouth to get a better look at his back teeth. 

“I tried to hit them with my car since they’re not needed in my plan, but Ding Dong is too good of a driver.” Ross said. He selected a bottom molar on Chris’s right. “But maybe they’ll just end up helping. They’ll notice you’re gone of course, and come looking.”

Chris sniffled as he cried in pain from the teeth pulling. He wanted this to stop. He couldn’t even beg at this point. He physically couldn’t. This wasn’t an interrogation anymore. This was honest tortue. Ross wasn’t trying to get information. He was using him and torturing him for the fun of it. 

“Oh quit crying,” Ross said as the tears fell onto his gloved hand. The pliers took hold of the molar firmly. Ross yanked on the tooth, earning a cry from Chris, but it did not come out. He yanked again and again. The molar finally ripped out of the gums with blood following it. It was all Chris could taste. It was running out his mouth with his spit. He could feel it dribbling down his chin and onto his shirt. 

Chris’s whole body was sweating. He couldn’t take much more of this. Punching and cuts he could handle as painful as it was, but teeth pulling was pushing his body past pain limits he wasn’t accustomed to. He was used to an occasional bullet to the leg, but it wasn’t common and never was it in his fucking mouth. His gums were sensitive. Hell, his whole mouth was. Ross took the molar from the pliers and turned it over in his gloved hand.

“What do you think, Chris? Three? Or maybe I should take another?”

Chris let out a noise of rejection, trying his hardest to say no. He was begging him not to. Ross, however, didn’t actually care about Chris’s opinion. He quickly yanked out Chris’s second bicuspid on the left side of his lower jaw with a sickening laugh. He tossed the tooth with the others on the cart. Chris could hear the way they tinked against the metal of the cart when they landed. He wanted to throw up. He was actually quite sure he was going to throw up. 

Ross undid the mouth gag and put it aside. Chris immediately began spitting out the blood and spit. He aimed for the ground, but it all ended up on himself. 

“Wasn’t that fun, Chris?” Ross asked.

“Fuck you!” Chris screamed. Ross grabbed Chris’s hair and forced his head back roughly. He leaned close to his ear.

“I’m in control now, O’Neill, so I’d reconsider my words or that throat of yours is going to be sliced open and then I can watch all the blood gush down your body as you slowly bleed out. It’ll be a delight seeing it spray all over while you gasp for breath, knowing you’re nothing but a failure. Don’t you think so? It’d a merciful death for a failure like you. You’ve endangered all your friends, and for what? Some guy?” Ross shoved Chris’s head forward and walked around the chair.

Chris panted trying to calm his heart rate, but his body was still on high alert. The pain was still present from every wound inflicted on him. He knew in order to make it through this, he’d have to lower his heart rate and try to reduce the pain. Clearly he couldn’t just patch himself up, so the only thing he could think of was to keep Ross talking so that the blows would be spaced out, allowing some recovering time. 

“What do you have to say for yourself?” Ross demanded.

Chris gagged and vomited. It landed in his lap, splashing onto the floor and his shirt. 

“God, you’re fucking disgusting.” Ross pushed his cart towards the door and opened it. Chris turned his head watching him. Where was he going? What was happening? Ross unplugged the flood light sending the room into darkness again. 

“Ross! Ross wait!” Chris screamed after him. 

“Sweet dreams, lover boy.” Ross laughed. He slammed the door shut and Chris could hear the sound of a lock turning. He continued screaming alone in the darkened room. Sweaty, covered in vomit and blood, and terrified. 

Chris screamed for all he was worth.

But no one heard him.   
  



	11. Freezie Pops

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A Flashback into the past, and Chris makes an escape.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry this took so long. I've been really busy lately and I hit a bit of a block with this story. I wasn't planning on the gap between chapters being this long and again, I'm sorry. Thank you for waiting.
> 
> Also freezie pops are otter pops. My family calls them freezie pops. I know they have different names depending on where you're from.

The taste of cherry was strong as he sucked on the cold freezie pop in his hand. Today was a scorcher and Chris knew no better idea than freezie pops on the roof of a building. What building? The only place he knew as home: The Grump space. Next to him, Dan sucked on his freezie pop scrolling his phone. 

“Dan?” Chris asked. Dan let out a small noise looking over, but didn't stop sucking on the frozen treat. “Have you ever been in love before?” 

Dan smiled. “Totally, bud. I mean, none of it worked out clearly since I'm still single. Why? You like someone?”

Chris shifted a little uneasily which made Dan light up and punch his shoulder. “You son of a bitch, you do! Who is it?”

“It's, uh, well it's Arin.” Chris said nervously. He watched as Dan's face fell with realization of the situation Chris has just put himself into. Danny searched for something to say, anything really, but what could he say? If they lived normal lives, he would tell Chris to talk to Arin, but they weren't normal. Arin was the crime lord of a drug ring in the area, with Danny as his second in command. Despite being their friend and a worker under them, Chris was a nobody. He meant nothing other than emotional ties. He had no family, no money to his name, and barely a record. That might have seemed like a good thing, but it would make Arin weak in the eyes of enemies. It made Chris a target to hit Arin. The only one who would care about him being taken out would, at that point, be Arin. No family or cops. Chris would be completely erased.

“I know, it’s not a good idea,” Chris said. “I’m not going to act on it, but I had to tell someone before it ate me up. I can’t trust the others honestly, but I trust you.” Chris could hardly keep still as he spoke. This wasn’t something he was quite comfortable discussing yet, and Danny could tell. He smiled gently and put a hand on his back.

“Don’t worry, Chris, I won’t tell anyone. Your secret is safe with me, I promise.” Danny said. “How about we head back inside and see what they’ve got cooking up, huh? Maybe Arin’s got a delivery for us to make.”

Chris smiled some. “Thanks, Dan. For everything.” 

“No problem, bud. It’s what family does.”

Chris was a bit shocked. “Family?”

“Of course, you’re one of us now, Chris. You’re part of the family.”

 

* * *

 

Pain throbbed through Chris’s entire body. He was exhausted from crying. He had no idea how long he had been in this room since Ross left, or how long he had been unconscious from the pain. It wasn’t easy trying to sleep in a foldable chair, but the pain sure helped him pass out. Chris did his best to wriggle and squirm enough to get his own vomit off his lap and away from his nose, but even with most of it on the floor, he could smell the bile. It was making him sick again. He distracted himself by licking at the now empty holes in his mouth, trying to get the bleeding to stop naturally. Some of the cuts on his legs were already healing due to being so shallow, while others still burned with pain, exposed to the air. Chris’s over all evaluation of his wounds came to the conclusion that he would make it through just fine as long as Ross didn’t walk back in ready for round two any time soon. The next task he had was trying to get out of this room, or at least out of the restraints.

Chris tugged the binding on his wrists. It was just rope. If he could figure out a way to cut the rope or untie it if he found the knot, he might just have a chance. Chris knew right off the bat that Ross wouldn’t be dumb enough to put the knot right where Chris could get it. Chris, careful not to tip over the chair, stood up and hopped away about a foot before slowly sitting on the ground, folding his legs under him. It was a little hard with them being restrained as well at the ankles, but with careful movements, Chris was able to wiggle his hands under his legs, bringing them to the front. From here, Chris used his teeth to untie the knot Ross had made. With his hands free, Chris made quick work of the rope around his feet. He was free of the restraints, but now he had to get the fuck out of here.

Chris had nothing but his bare hands to work with. The room was empty. He headed over to the door and pressed an ear to the door, listening for any sign of life. When Chris didn’t hear anything, he opened the door. He was surprised to find it unlocked. Was Ross really that confident that Chris wouldn’t escape? He slipped into the empty hallway and quickly headed down the right side. He already knew where this was headed. He knew this building like the back of his hand. Getting out of here was going to be nearly impossible, but maybe if he put all his chips on one person, he might just make it out of here. 

Chris stopped at one of the office doors and quickly went inside, surprising the occupant inside. Danny sat at his desk, working on what looked like false documents. He opened his mouth to say something when Chris put a finger to his hand. He grabbed a notepad and pen off Danny’s desk and sat on the floor. If anyone passed by, they wouldn’t see him through the door window. 

_ Is Ross here?  _ Chris wrote. He held it up for Danny to read. Danny nodded.

_ Can you get me out? _

Danny read the words over and over before he nodded with a serious expression. Danny wheeled his chair back to the couch he had in his office and grabbed a box that had been hidden under his jacket.

“Might want these,” He said in a whisper. He opened it and handed Chris his hoodie and bandana.

Chris wrapped the hoodie around his waist and tied the bandana on his upper arm. You couldn’t keep an Archangel down. Danny then opened a drawer and took out a handgun and handed it to him.

“I can’t actually get you out, but I can make sure you’re not detected right away.” He explained. “If you can, please don’t kill anyone, but if you have to shoot, shoot for the legs.”

“I’ll do my best, Dan. Thank you.” Chris said, placing the gun in his back pocket. Danny got up from his chair and left the office, allowing Chris to head out in the other direction. He just needed an exit, any kind. He cursed the building for not putting windows in the office spaces. He could have escaped from Danny’s office. Curse you person who made this building! 

Chris was honestly surprised at how little resistance he found as he moved from each hallway. Although, now that he thought about it, if Ross was being occupied, Brian was all he had to worry about really. Hopefully Danny could also keep him occupied as well. He was lucky that Danny hadn’t been turned to Ross’s side, but he didn’t know how long his luck would last. Chris ducked into a closet when he heard footsteps coming up the hallway. He couldn’t be sure who it was, but he was pretty sure he didn’t want to find out. 

Chris waited anxiously as the footsteps passed by and faded out. He waited a few moments before peeking out of the closet. It was clear. Now was his chance to make it out of here. The door wasn’t far. If he dashed now, he could get out of here! Chris sucked in a breath and dashed down the hallway. He knew his feet were loud on the wooden floor, but he could see the front door and every part of him was screaming to reach it. He had to reach the door. He had to get out of here. A few more feet. Inches. He almost reach it! Chris reached out and grabbed ahold of the handle. Without any thought, he flung open the door. Freedom! Sweet freedom! 

Everything stopped as he ran right into someone on the other side of the door, causing him to nearly fall over into them. Arms were around him, catching him as the two fell onto the ground. Chris quickly moved back from the person as they collected themselves and stood up, towering over him. Staring back at him was Arin.

“Chris?” He asked, concern filling his voice as he saw how abused Chris was.

A smile cracked on his pain filled face. Chris began to laugh. Hot tears slid down his cheeks as he laughed. He had no idea if he was relieved, or even more afraid that Arin was going to lock him back up again. Arin leaned down and helped Chris back up, who stumbled on trembling legs. 

“We have to get you out of here. You’re coming with me.” Arin said firmly, guiding him right out the door. Chris couldn’t stop laughing. He was safe. He was under Arin’s protection now. How pitiful it was. How the universe loved to mock him and throw dirt in his face. First he was abused, and now he was going to be further reminded that he only got in this situation because of his stupid ass gay thoughts. However, Chris wasn’t about to protest the help. He was ready to collapse as the endorphins from fear and pain were fading into just dull, aching pain all over. 

Arin led Chris over to his car, which was parked out front on the curb. He helped Chris into the passenger seat and hurried over to the drivers side. 

“I’m taking you to my place. It’s not safe anywhere else.” Arin said, bringing the car to life. Chris reached up and brought the sun visor down and flipped open the little mirror. He looked at his bruised, broken, and bloody face.

“Jesus Christ,” Chris breathed out. He looked fucked up. Blood had dried around his mouth and nose, and his right eye had swelled up like a balloon. Thankfully, he could still see out of it, so he hadn’t quite noticed just how swollen it really was until now. He gently touched his cheek and winced at the pain. “I’m a train wreck.” 

“Yeah, you are.” Arin agreed.

“You’re not suppose to agree,”

“Alright, Chris, you look lovely.”

“Much better.”


	12. Bad Karma

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arin remembers his past as a crime leader before taking Chris home to tend to his wounds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Long chapter this time. Updates should be a little more regular, but if there's any hold ups I'll let you guys know on my tumblr, dannyvhs (previously pepsi-rabbit but i changed urls)

Arin Hanson had never expected to become the leader of a drug ring. It had only started as a small side thing during college to try and make extra cash. He had been poor after all and animation hadn’t quite taken off yet as a “worthy career” in the eyes of society, so he had been thrown into a hard situation. He could only live on ramen and leftovers fished out of the back dumpster of Panera (Thankfully they wrapped all the leftovers in a plastic bag before throwing them, so they were perfectly safe). Arin had started with selling weed. He figured it was easy to get his hands on and easy to sell to college students. 

Arin made decent money doing this and soon moved up the drug chain when he met other drug dealers in the area who had formed what seemed like some terrible drug dealer union if you could believe such a thing. The profits from the drug union were great, however. He and a new friend, Jon, would sell small baggies of cocaine on the lower streets of the city during the late hours. They were never large cuts, only small doses to get people hooked which would send them over to much larger dealers who had “the goods”. Both Arin and Jon would end up with a cut of the profit from each new person they hooked in.

After awhile, Arin had been able to get his own supplies of cocaine, weed, and other drugs that he cut into other powders to hook clients. He went on his own, dominating the market of the city, and with the respect and help of the other dealers, he had little to no competition. It was around this time he met Dan. Dan was a simple guy who was just looking for his next weed high and Arin had been his next source. They’d see each other at least once a week and Arin would always provide, but after awhile, he began to grow a fondness for Dan. They ended up becoming friends and hanging out instead. 

Once Dan was in the equation, it hadn’t been long until the other pieces of the puzzle fell into place and Arin had his own team of friends that were not only his close family, but loyal workers who would take a bullet for him. He was making more money now than he had ever dreamed and his days of a poor college student were becoming far in his mind collecting dust. Now he worked under the guise of a gaming team known as the Game Grumps by day, but by night they were pushing product into the veins of every back alley hobo and college teen. The world was his to control in this city.

The one thing Arin hadn’t been expecting however, was the youngest member of his Grump Group to nearly fall right into his lap. He hadn’t come in search of work or of drugs like the other had. In fact, he hadn’t come searching at all. Arin had found him on his own in a back alleyway in tears, covered in blood. It had been almost 3 in the morning when Arin had heard his pitiful wailing behind the apartment complex building. The way Chris was doubled over in sobbing tears, soaked in blood, was an image he would never erase from his mind no matter how hard Arin tried. 

Chris had witnessed the murder of his parents at only age 17. He had escaped the apartment down the fire escape, and once he believed he was safe, he sobbed for all he was worth. He had no home now, and something in him did not consider getting the police involved with the murders. Arin never asked, even now. It was a subject Chris refused to open up about and would only cause the Irish boy to shut down for hours and refuse to interact with anyone, especially the person who had asked. 

At the time, Arin had seen it as an easy business deal to add numbers to his team. Under the guise of a deal, he knew it was sheer mercy on Chris to take him in and provide for him. There was no way this kid knew how to be on his own. Once Arin brought him back, Chris was welcomed with open arms almost immediately. It was like they all saw him as their child, despite him not being too much younger than a few of them. Chris was christened into the group with a new title, as all of them had. 

Oney.

Chris had been one hell of a bomb maker. He had a knack for putting explosives togethers no matter the size. He was also incredibly deadly with a knife and Chris knew all the major arteries in the body and where to cut to pierce them. He could hit a bullseye on a spinning target from five feet away, probably even ten feet. Chris had more potential than Arin had given the kid credit for, and it wasn’t long before Oney was practically his right hand on every mission. Oney and Egoraptor became feared names throughout the city and while Arin knew some of the power was going to Chris’s head, he had to admit Chris had earned his infamy. 

Only it couldn’t last.

Everything had to sour eventually.

Chris had begun acting different. He would avoid the social interactions the group would have outside of work and hole up in his room. He would eat less, at least, Arin was sure he was. Chris never came out for dinner anymore it seemed (Thankfully, Danny informed him later that Chris would eat the leftovers from dinner in the night when everyone had disappeared). There were a few possibilities that Arin could think of for the behavior. The most likely was that Chris was working on a bomb and was throwing all his spare time into fixing it up and trying to perfect it, but that didn’t explain why he would duck into rooms when he saw Arin coming down the hall. Was Chris doing drugs and trying to hide it? No, this wasn’t drugs. It couldn’t be.

Arin could never quite figure it out and he didn’t have a chance to. It was mid July when Chris ran away. He hadn’t left a note or any explanation, just packed a backpack and left. Arin had tried to think of every possible explanation of why Chris had left them so suddenly and without warning, but there was no valid reason. It would be only a few weeks before he heard news of a bank hold up near the other side of town conducted by the infamous Oney. The results of the bank heist hadn’t been pretty and it was with a broken heart that Arin realized Chris O’Neill was most likely dead.

Over the next few months, Arin had fallen into a terrible depression. He tried his best to get over this news, he tried to focus on his job, on his lovely girlfriend, but it was so hard. Chris was not only a friend to him, but family. He had never had any of his close friends suddenly leave him like this, and none of them had died in a heist either. He blamed himself. Somehow, it had to have been his fault no matter what the others tried to tell him. He had been responsible for Chris’s horrible death at such a young age.

But Chris O’Neill hadn’t died in the bank heist. In fact, he had lived. Arin had seen him alive and well with two other folks downtown outside a gunshop and he had to double take to make sure he had seen correctly. It was only when Arin saw the red bandana on Chris’s upper arm did all the puzzle pieces fit together in his brain. Chris had survived and been picked up by Motifa. He didn’t know much about her, except she was a rival from the other side of town. He had expected Chris to not understand that and have no issues with joining up with someone who could provide him shelter much like Arin had. Seeing Chris alive had brought so much joy and relieve that Arin could have cried when he talked to Chris. As he left the scene and the boy behind, he could only watch Chris and the others, imagining the small frightened teen covered in blood, crying in agony over his lost parents. Chris had grown so much since then, both physically and as a person.

But today, all Arin could see was that weak, frightened boy in Chris and it made him sick. He was sick because of the thought that someone had hurt such an innocence boy like Chris like this, shown him things he really shouldn’t have ever seen. The worst part was knowing it was another member of his family that had done this. Arin looked at Chris again from the corner of his eyes as he drove. Chris’s face was swollen in places, especially his one eye, and dried blood had crusted around his nose and mouth along with what looked like vomit. His shirt, which had once been a white muscle shirt, was now stained yellowish with droplets of dark red speckled down the middle. Arin could see nasty bruising through the rips in the knees of his jeans and didn’t really want to imagine what was under the rest of the fabric. 

_ You did this to him. _ The thought came quickly and Arin nearly jumped when it came. He didn’t do this to Chris. He couldn’t have. He never harmed a hair on his head! There was no possible way this was his fault.

_ You could have just taken him to the police before. You could have checked on him before he ran away. You could have stopped Ross.  _

Arin kept trying to force away these thoughts. 

_ Why didn’t you come earlier? You were scared of Ross. You’re supposed to be his boss, you coward chicken shit. You did this to Chris. _

The thoughts were torture. He wanted them to stop. Arin desperately looked over at Chris for a quick moment, hoping the boy would speak up and start a conversation, but he didn’t. He just kept looking out the window, his eyes clouded over. If someone didn’t say something soon, Arin was going to go insane from his guilty conscious trying to rip him apart from the inside out. 

Chris was the one who finally broke.

“What did I ever do to him?”

“Excuse me?”

“Ross,” Chris looked over to Arin. “Why does he suddenly hate me? We were always so close. He showed me how to use a knife properly. We’d always play video games in our down time and see who would do better at Mario Kart. Now, it’s like, I did something unforgivable to him.”

It seemed Arin wasn’t the only one stuck on the nostalgic past they shared. Arin shrugged a bit, keeping his eyes on the busy city streets.

“I don’t know what got in his head, Chris. Maybe Ross finally went mental and just picked you at random. Maybe he doesn’t realize what he’s doing. Christ, I have no idea.” Arin said. “I can never predict what he’s thinking.” 

The car went quiet again as Arin drove. Neither of them quite knew what to say to the other at this point. Arin was left with his guilt again, but thankfully they had arrived at his apartment. He had decided to keep an apartment in the more run down part of the city instead of having some nice place in the upper district. Sure he could afford it fine, but something about it felt wrong. It always felt like doing such a thing just put more of a target on his back. 

Arin helped Chris out of the car and guided him into the apartment building. The stairs hadn’t been kind to Chris’s condition and they had to stop quite a few times for Chris to catch his balance or to just rest. Once inside the apartment, Chris nearly collapsed on Arin’s couch with a groan of pain. Arin locked the front door then beelined to the bathroom for the first aid. 

He froze looking at himself in the mirror. Reflection Arin stared back at him with messy hair and tired eyes. Small specks of hair lined extended out from his small growing beard. If he didn’t shave it was going to be a full on full face beard. He furrowed his brows at this and reflection Arin did the same. Arin opened the medicine cabinet hiding reflection Arin and took out the first aid supplies he needed along with a hair tie. He quickly tied his hair back into a small ponytail and collected the items before him. He shut the cabinet and left the bathroom. 

Chris was groaning on the couch as he approached. Arin wasn’t looking forward to seeing everything Ross had done to him. He helped Chris sit up and got to work cleaning off his face with a wet wipe. Neither of them spoke as Arin worked. They didn’t need to. Arin could feel the guilt destroying him as he worked. He was near the edge of breaking in front of Chris, but he was managing to keep it together.

Until Chris said his name.

Arin could see the missing teeth in his mouth. He could see where all the blood had really come from. He could hear the slight change in the way Chris spoke due to the front teeth that were missing. Tears brimmed in his eyes and slid over the water lines down his cheeks. Chris watched him with curiosity, not understanding what he was seeing.

“I never meant for this to happen,” Arin said softly. “I never meant for you to be hurt.” 

“Arin,”

“I wanted to help you all those years ago, and when you left, I thought it was my fault somehow. I felt so awful about it and I thought you died because of my carelessness. Chris, fuck,” Arin had to wiped the tears on his cheeks. “I never thought Ross would go this far. I thought him trying to overpower me was just, just his way of throwing a temper tantrum. He’s done it before. I didn’t come back for awhile because I knew Ross had to cool down, but Danny told me what he was doing and, fuck-”

“It’s like some horrible karma coming back on me, isn’t it? I was awful to you and, and I got you into all this and now, now it’s killing me. I deserve more after what’s happened to you. I had no idea you liked me and, I should have talked to you before you left. Chris, fuck, I’m so sorry.”

Arin was word vomiting. He knew in his mind that he was, but he just couldn’t shut his mouth off. Words tumbled out as the tears fell. He only stopped when Chris pulled him into a hug suddenly. 

“Shut up, you asshole.” Chris said. “I forgive you.”

Arin was stunned as his mind registered what was happening. Once he had, he slowly returned the hug. The two stayed there on the couch in a tight hug as all their worries came crashing down around them. Chris was free from Ross now, and Arin no longer had his guilt looming over him. They were finally reunited not only as friends, but as family. There issues were far from over, but they were at the beginning of recovery. 

Arin pulled back from the hug, looking at Chris’s swollen and bruised face. 

“Hey, want some ice cream?” He asked. Chris chuckled.

“Fuck yeah I do.”


	13. July 20th

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A flashback to the day Chris met Motifa

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry for the delay. I've been busy with moving but im just about settled now! I'll try to get updates out more.

 

On July 20th, it had been over 80 degrees,  the movie  _ Killer Island Part 5 _ premiered and would go on to be number one in the box offices, a member of the mayor’s council was arrested on drug charges, and Chris O’Neill ran away from the Grumps. He didn’t have much of plan except escaping before it was too late and he ended up a nameless corpse thrown in the bay. Chris really didn’t want to leave his only home and family, but he knew he had no choice. If Suzy or Arin caught wind of his crush, he could be killed on the spot. Especially since Suzy came from a long line of hitmen. 

Chris had decided to squat in an abandoned warehouse not too far from the docks. No one ever came here unless it was for some kind of drug deal, or if they were in a similar situation as Chris. Living as a homeless guy wasn’t too bad at first, but then Chris ran right into an issue that both homeless people and college students had. He had no money. He couldn’t get a job since he was a wanted criminal and he definitely couldn’t go back to his friends. Chris’s only choice was to stage a one man heist. It was risky, especially on his own, but it was that or go without eating (Unless he wanted to eat from dumpsters and he decided to pass on that). 

Chris loaded a single handgun and tied his red bandana around his lower half of his face, just like Arin did. His target was the local America First bank, not far from where he was squatting. It was a smaller building as it was near the docks, and it didn’t seem too heavily guarded, but he knew he couldn’t doubt it for a minute. Banks were unpredictable. He just had to remember everything Arin and Dan had taught him. No problem.

Chris entered the bank silently. He even waited in line. He didn’t want to raise alarm.

“Deposit or withdrawal?” The lady asked when he arrived at the counter.

“Withdrawal.”

“How much? I’ll need to see your account number-”

Chris placed the gun on the counter.

“All of it, and this should do. Show me those hands, but keep ‘em low.”

Fear filled her eyes and Chris smiled behind his bandana. She slowly lifted her hands.

“You’re going to give me what you have in your drawer, no questions asked. That, or I’ll blow your fucking head off. I know you got that alarm under your desk. Touch it, and I shoot these innocent customers. Say anything, and I shoot you  _ and _ these sweet people. Deal?”

She nodded frantically.

“Good girl.”

The woman behind the counter began taking out the money and putting into Chris’s bag. He looked around, making sure nothing was out of the ordinary. He knew by now that someone else had to have picked up, whether it be the other tellers or someone who worked here. It was best to assume the cops were coming even if she hadn’t pressed the alert button. With trembling hands, the woman handed over the bag and Chris took the gun off the counter.

“Thank you,” He said in a polite voice before turning. Once he did, he was found out. People behind him saw the bag. They saw the pistol in his hand. 

“Oh my God!”

Chris fired up to the ceiling causing people to scramble.

“Yeah, yeah, it’s a robbery and all that jazz fuck off.” He headed towards the door almost calmly. No doubt all the bank tellers were pressing their panic buttons frantically under the desks watching Chris. 

“Stop!” A guard shouted. Chris turned and shot him right in the forehead without batting an eye. He was a damn good shot when he wasn’t in a firefight. He was learning to be a sniper after all. The guard fell backwards and into a heap as blood pooled out around his head, pieces of brain and skin dotting the floor in and around the ever growing puddle. His eyes were still wide with terror, frozen in death. 

Chris knew this could only last for so long and he had to make his escape. He hurried out of the bank on foot. Okay, so running by foot wasn’t a great idea and maybe he didn’t quite think this out. Police had cars, and guns, and helicopters, and he had nothing but a pistol to his name. Not exactly his best work. Chris could hear the sirens coming up the road as he ran down the sidewalk. They’d see him before they even reached the bank. He had to shake them somehow. He weaved off the sidewalk and jumped over a fence into a backyard. He continued jumping fences, going by yard to yard. The docks would end up being his safe haven if he could make it that far. He could stash the money and hide out under the overpass that was just a block or two from the water.

Chris landed in the next yard only to be met by a dog, who in turn snarled and barked going after him.

“Fuck!” Chris shouted, trying to climb back over the fence. The dog nipped at his heels as he struggled to climb over. Thankfully the weight of the bag helped pull him over once he had it up over the fence. He panted looking around the open street. The sirens were coming and he was out in the open now. His lungs were on fire and each breath was quick and harsh. God he needed to work out more. 

Chris picked up the sack and took off again down the road. He heard the sound of a police intercom turning on and he heard a female voice behind him saying, “Stop in the name of the law! Surrender the money and we will not be forced to shoot!”

“Shit!” Chris cursed. They were catching up to him. There was no fucking way he could outrun a goddamn car. This had to be the dumbest way to get caught by the law and he was not only going to be in prison, but lose all his credit and respect from those who knew his name. Way to go, Chris, picking a really dumb way to get money. You could have done a number of other things like robbing a random person or breaking into a house at night, but no you had to try and rob a bank in daylight-

A gunshot brought him back out of his thoughts as he ran. Oh fuck.

What happened next was something Chris wasn’t ever quite sure if it was real or just imagined, even all these years later. 

Out of nowhere, a car flipped over, fire blowing out from the side of the vehicle. Chris screamed and ended up falling on his face. He could feel the scrapes on his hands and cheek as he looked over his shoulder, but the sight blew any feeling out of the water. Police cars were swerving as what looked like some kind of laser was shot at them, causing the sides of the cars to explode in balls of fire. Each attacked caused parked cars on the road to go flying from the impact of the flaming police car. One car went flying past Chris down the road, rolling onto its side. When it didn’t explode into fire, Chris chose this car as his protection and scrambled to his feet. As he dove behind it, he heard another explosion on the other side. There were more gunshots, but whatever was attacking wasn’t going to let up that easily. He peeked up over the car to see cars on fire, bodies lying on the ground, but some were running. 

A police officer with short pink hair was shielding her eyes with her hand as she looked up into the sky for the attacker. She suddenly noticed Chris and fired a shot at him. He yelped and ducked back down.

“I see you, Oney! I don’t know what you’re doing, but you and whoever is helping you isn’t going to stop us that easily! You’re going to jail!” She shouted. There were a few more gunshots while Chris checked his own pistol. He popped up over the car firing when he heard her stop. He missed a few times due to his own nerves causing his hands to shake, but he managed to hit her in the shoulder before he ducked back down. 

Something landed between him and the officer. He heard it, but also felt the vibration in his chest like a helicopter touchdown. Chris’s heart hammered in his chest as he panted in fear. Every atom of his body screamed at him to not look over and wait until it was safe as some new evil had arrived on the scene, but he wanted to look. Maybe it was curiousity, or maybe it was the fact this thing had saved him from prison, but he found himself peeking up over the side of the car. 

Chris saw a larger black woman in a purple shirt standing before him. Her shirt rode up in the back, displaying an intricate tattoo design. Her hair was cut short and was framed nicely around the edges of her ears. The woman looked almost gentle to him, yet, he definitely didn’t want to mess with her. Chris could tell this woman was not someone you mess with in the least. What he didn’t know at the time however, was just how powerful she was.

“Stand down!” The officer with pink hair shouted. 

“Officer Conrad! Get out of here!” Someone on her side shouted. Chris couldn’t see them, but he could hear his strangled pained voice. Christ almighty. The woman did not stand down. She simply began to walk towards Officer Conrad. Officer Conrad did not open fire as the woman got closer, but continued to shout threats and telling her to stand down. 

What Chris saw happened in the matter of a second.

Officer Conrad fired her gun right at the woman, but the bullet did not make it. The woman simply backhanded the bullet like a game of tennis. The bullet was sent back right at the officer and struck her in the heart. Officer Conrad collapsed onto the ground bleeding out. Blood gushed through her fingers as she clamped her hands to the bullet wound in frantic desperation. She only had a moment to look up at her killer before her eyes rolled back and she collapsed. 

It was just Chris and the woman now. 

The woman slowly turned and looked directly at Chris.

He couldn’t look away. He was a deer in the headlights.

She walked towards Chris now, each footstep syncing to the heartbeat in Chris’s ears. As she approached, Chris found himself actually looking up. She was much taller than he had expected, or maybe he was just smaller? Christ, he didn’t know. Her face was now softer than what he had assumed it had been before. 

“You lost?” She asked. Her voice was like sweet honey and filled Chris with a feeling of belonging almost instantly, like this woman was a goddess. He wanted to follow her lead almost immediately. Chris wanted to serve under her, so long as he could continue to feel loved and wanted under her gaze. Her name was Motifa and she was looking for someone to keep her company. Chris took her hand when she extended it.

Chris did not know that by shaking her hand, he had sealed his fate in stone.


	14. Kitchen Table

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the wait! I held off posting while I worked on chapter 15 and plotted out the rest of this story. Not quite finished with 15 yet, but I'm posting 14 now.

Chris was in and out of consciousness for quite a long time over the next few days. Minutes would turn into hours, seconds into days. He could hardly keep things straight as Arin tended to him. At one point, Ding Dong and Julian had arrived to check on him, but Chris had been so hyped up on some kind of drug to numb the pain while Arin stitched up the deeper slashes on his legs that Chris wasn’t really sure if they came or if he just dreamed that happening. Somewhere on the edge of his consciousness, Chris could hear people talking. He could hear voices mentioning him, but not directly at him. 

Chris’s eyes slowly opened. It was night, judging by the lamps that were turned on and the faint city lights coming in from the living room window. Chris was laying on the couch, head propped up on two pillows, and covered in a blanket. He sat up with a yawn and moved the blanket. Wait, these weren’t his jeans. Chris looked down confused to find himself in red plaid pajama pants. Hadn’t he been in his jeans before? He was still in his hoodie, but the bandana was removed and so were his socks. Had Arin changed him? Or did Ding Dong and Julian do that? He didn’t even remember that. He hardly remembered everything after the bowls of ice cream and the medication. Thankfully, most of his pain had either numbed from the medication or healed to a point where he could easily block it out using his built up pain tolerance. The voice were coming clearer now from the other room.

“-has a plan, right? Like you said, why would he just make sure Chris left?”

“I just got off the phone with Matt. He said there’s an army forming on our end of town. They think I ordered it, but I’ve been here taking care of Chris.”

“That mother fucker! Motifa was forming her own small army in preparation to find Chris.”

“Oh my God, he knew.”

Chris’s groggy brain was swimming trying to figure out what he was hearing and what those words meant. They didn’t really register for him at first. They weren’t important in the haze. They were just words coming from people. All it did was confirm that Chris had lived and his escape hadn’t actually been some pain induced dream like he had feared in between each feverish dream. He ran a hand through his hair and looked towards where the voices were coming from. He was missing large parts of the conversation by letting his mind drift, and even now he knew there was so much being said that he should have been paying attention to now that he was awake.

Chris carefully got up off the couch and stumbled over to the doorway to the kitchen. He leaned against the wall of the door frame watching the scene in front of him. Huddled around the small kitchen table was Ding Dong, Julian, and Arin. None of them were in their usual outfits and if it wasn’t for the hushed, stern tones, Chris would have thought they all had decided to crash at Arin’s for a movie night by the look of it. The room was dark, save for the one light hanging over the kitchen table above them. It was like an interrogation, Chris thought, or even one of those movies where you see guys smoking and playing poker with only one light in the room. It amused him to imagine his friends betting their chips and smoking.

“If we don’t do something soon, the whole city will be up in flames.” Ding Dong said.

“Who’s lighting up the city?” Chris asked. His voice startled the trio. Their eyes were wide, fearful, and had something else lurking in them that uneased Chris. It was a look he had only seen a few times before in Arin’s eyes during the early days of crime. It was a look that told you this would end up being a matter of life and death. This was a situation where you looked over every option, every inch of the map, and plan out ten different plans based solely on the concept of the butterfly effect. However, the tense feeling was quickly broken when Julian’s relief outweighed his concern for the conversation at hand.

“Chris!” Julian nearly threw himself at the Irishman and hugged him tightly. After a moment of hesitation, Ding Dong did the same. Chris was thrown off balance a bit as he was hugged from both sides. 

“Woah, hey guys,” Chris gently wrapped his arms around them hugging back.

“We were so worried!” Julian said squeezing Chris tighter. 

“We’re never letting you out of our eyesight ever again!” Ding Dong added.

“Jesus fuck, I’m not a little kid,” Chris said with a laugh. Despite this, none of them let go of each other. Chris welcomed the stability they offered him, and he could only imagine the amount of fears and panicked thoughts that had just been cleared up now that he was awake. The three of them really were family after all. Chris might have had the grumps, but he was all Julian and Ding Dong had. At least, to his knowledge.

Arin cleared his throat from where he was still sitting and the trio looked over. They had almost forgotten he was still there.

“Take a seat, guys,” Arin said. “We have a lot to talk about to catch Chris up to speed.”

 

 

* * *

 

Danny’s fingers carefully separated the small plastic strips of the window blind and he peered out onto the street. The city had been in chaos. For the most part, it wasn’t affecting the daily lives of those outside the criminal world, but he had a terrible feeling that it would extend out and gobble them up as well. It had been days since Chris had escaped, and his escape had only pushed Ross further into his anger-fueled madness. Danny had left as soon as possible to get away from the burning flame that was Ross O'Donovan. It actually hadn’t been too long after that Brian had followed after, agreeing that Ross was losing it. 

None of this seemed like some grudge or petty power play against Arin like it had been in the beginning. This was something personal to Ross, something that he was going to see out until he died or his plan was completed. Danny knew Ross way too well and he knew when something was personal to Ross. The way he had acted after he tortured Chris, how he would angrily look over pictures of Motifa and write notes about God knows what, his mumbling and restless sleeping. Something really bad was brewing on the horizon and it was only a matter of time before the storm broke and all of Ross’s concerns and pent up anger became exposed and put out on display. 

Danny was never one for conflict. He knew how ironic it was, considering his position in the city wide drug ring run by his best friend, but he never killed and hardly ever harmed unless it came down to his life. Danny always tried to be civil. This would land him as the spokes-person or the stand-in for a bust on whoever they needed taken out. If someone had to be killed, Arin would do it. This, however, was conflict he couldn’t avoid. It was going to take them all out unless someone stopped Ross. 

The front door opened behind him and shut with a snap of the lock.

“He told me,” Brian said. Danny turned to face him, fear already dropping in his stomach like a stone. Ross hadn’t caught on yet to the fact that he was losing two people on his side and both Brian and Danny were prepared to get as much out of him as possible.

“What caused this?” Danny asked quietly.

“Holly.”

Danny put a hand to his mouth and slowly sat down on the couch.

“Oh sweet Jesus,” he whispered. 

Brian said nothing at first, but when Danny said nothing more, he continued on.

“Her death- Motifa caused it. She killed Holly. He’s been stewing on this. This whole time, Dan. He wants her dead.”

Danny looked back at the window, his view blocked by the blinds. He felt sick hearing this. 

“He’s not going to stop,” Danny said finally. “He loved her more than anything in the world. Brian, he’s not going to stop.”

“Ross is forming an army of Arin’s allies,” Brian said. “He’s going to use them as a distraction against her. Pit us all against each other.”

Danny looked over at Brian as his brain began putting this all together. A large street war. Gangs fighting gangs, friends against friends, police, criminals, a real shitshow and bloodbath. The only thing Danny couldn’t wrap his mind around yet was why? If this was all for Holly, and his main goal was to get Motifa, why on earth would he pit two rival gangs against each other? Why wouldn’t he just go for Motifa herself? Why wouldn’t he-

“Chris!” Danny shouted suddenly, jumping up. “Oh my God, he’s going to kill Chris, Julian, and Ding Dong in the mess! Ross is going to make it look like a gang war killed them so he can still be in Arin’s good graces or ours or whatever! That mother fucker!”

“We have to warn them,” Brian said as Danny hurried past him and into the kitchen. 

“We’re going to do more than that, Brian,” Danny returned slipping his gun in the holder on his side. “We’re stopping Ross before he starts, even if we have to kill him.”

 


End file.
